Unca Harlan's Art Deco Dining Pavilion

Archive - 02/20/2010 to 04/2/2010

Unca Harlan's Art Deco Dining Pavilion

I'm unbearably ashamed to admit it, but my water bomb days (mostly on tenants passing low bridge) ended when I was 12-years-old.

I knew then a part of my childhood was lost forever.

Drill Baby Drill. . . not so fast
Obama's embrace of offshore drilling in some areas of the US is both more, and less, than it seems. In 2008 when the Republicans were demanding more offshore drilling as a campaign platform, those in the know pointed out that even if the entire plan was passed immediately, it would take at least 5 years before it even started because there was already a 5 year waiting list for existing offshore contracts to start drilling due to the need for specialized equipment (oil derricks, ships to launch and maintain oil derricks) and even if contracts to build more of these massive, special ships were started it would still take years to happen, so they're not going to suddenly start sprouting up...not for years. By opening up more fields, Obama just took another issue away from the Republicans that they can't use against him. What they have left to use against him remains thin as more people, including businesses, start seeing positive effects from the health insurance reform legislation, which in 2 weeks the Republicans have already backed away from wanting to repeal and now just want to "revise."

Friendship
The "wisdom" I am about to impart is not original to me; I didn't come up with it. But the talk about cowardice made me think of it for some reason:

Your true friend is not the guy who bails you out. Your true friend is the guy sitting beside you in the cell who says, "Dude, was that fun or what?"

And just so you guys know (as if you didn't already), Harlan Ellison keeps his promises.

To paraphrase Big Chris from Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, "It was emotional."

Thanks, Unk.

Chuck

PSSSSSST TO HODGE CRABTREE

Consider the word said.

-he

KAFKAHEAD REPLY / BARNEY DANNELKE NOTE
It's Friday night here in LA -- and a gentle best wishes to all of you who respect Good Friday and Easter -- particularly you, Cindy -- and I've just seen your retelling of the "prank in the mall." I have no idea what others have said earlier in reply to your clearly heartfelt and concussive appeal. I come late to that party, I suppose, because I pop in here only, sometimes, once a day. But I will answer you honestly. For what it's worth.

I like you. I think you are one smart cookie. And you've got more smarts in your most recent bowel movement than is possessed by any twelve of your friends, wadded up into a gobbet and deep-fried.

That said, I can only codify what you wrote, and extrapolate a What Would Harlan Do? answer. For you, and for your friend.

1. Don't give me that bullshit about "I only tagged along when they (your choice: burned down the school; molested that girl; key gouged that car both sides; kicked that cat; set fire to that puppy) water-ballooned those (your choice: black dude, fat girl, autistic 6th-grader, old guy with a walker, hunchbacked rabbi, whatEVER) because of my "friend."

No, kiddo, YOU are responsible. You are not a member of the Society of Ignoramuses who require you to tag along as they do stupid things, for adolescent reasons.

That's you, a kid I like and admire and have respect for, letting yourself off the moral hook by mumbling something utterly beneath Kafkahead! You tagged along, because you weren't being independant, you were lowering yourself to THEIR level. Anything beyond that is, as Monty Python used to say, "a fair cop." It's bullshit.

2. That said, your "friend" seems to me not to be a genuine I've Gotcher Back friend, but a strong acquaintance. Big difference, as you will (or perhaps now HAVE) come to differentiate. You ran? Fucking correct. He participated and got bit for his foolishness? Sad, but again, fucking correct. Actions always (ALWAYS and ALL WAYS) have consequences, many of which only manifest themselves later. Sometimes years later...

I had a friend. Decades long. Very close, very "good" -- and it wasn't till, oh, ten or so years ago, that I realized he was no more an I Gotcher Back than, realistically, you are to me a universe separated from you. realistically. You, I barely know; he, was as close as a brother. It broke my heart, I cut him loose, and I had to get over it. That's what adults do.

Are you a coward? How the hell should I know, I've known you only a few months here, at best. My guess is that you're not.
Running when an angry mob is about do a stream-of-lava over you is called the Survival Instinct.

There was a writer who once said of me, having seen my behavior in a situation where I could've been handed my head on a yo-yo by overwhelming troglodyte thugs, "Harlan is fearless."

Not brave. Not heroic. Fearless: he knows no fear.

Big philologic difference.

Fearless: too stupid to know when to run.

Your "friend" was stupid to be part of the group pulling the prank...you were trying, naturally at age 17, to be part of the peer group...and you ran not because you were cowardly, you ran because you ain't stupid. A "friend," YOUR friend, isn't taking responsibility for his own stupidity, trying to lay it off on you because you realized, at the moment everything went kaput!!!, that I Better Get the Hell Outta Here...

You can't get pissed-off or heartbroken because your friend won't cop to the same thing you did, just "going along," or more, or less involved, and using me as a ridiculous Spartan at Thermopyle trope, is clever but not as clever as YOU.

Coward? I suspect not, though that's a suspicion that proceeds from sparse raw data and gut-instinct. Too worthy not to have been sucked into that maelstrom in the first place? Mmm.

Power-kick it around in your head for a bunch of days. You have the answer. You just have to decode it.

Your pal, Harlan
----------------------------------------------------------------

Barney: the "revenge" package arrived. O gawd, son, do I only just LOVE IT!! Len Wein and I kvelled over it (a good thing)(even at Eastertime).

the wild west
I, for one, am highly disappointed that Sandra Bullock's problem with Jesse James has nothing to do with him carrying a six-shooter.

John Zeock
John Zeock posted here a little over a year ago, having purchased a 75cent garage sale copy of the collection of Karmesin tales by Gerald Kersh. “While I worship his work,” he said, “that one leaves me stone cold so will send to whomever would like it.”

That someone was me. I offered him his choice of a few books as trade; as it happened, nothing that worked out. He asked if I had an extra copy of Sturgeon’s novelization of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, a book I didn’t even know existed. I took a jaunt to a nearby used book store and was stunned to find it, first try. I packaged it up and sent it off to him.

And he wrote a letter to me, to thank me and relate a small story about his memories of the Sturgeon novelization. I’ve kept that letter inside the Karmesin ever since. I’m especially glad I did, now.

John Zeock, RIP
A sad passing. I've enjoyed reading his posts and will miss them. I can only imagine how much such a fine person will be missed by all of his friends. My condolences to those who were close to him.

The Association Bibliopoche (founded in France in 1901 to promote the reading of pocket books) has gotten around to reviewing Dérapages (Slippage) on their blog.
http://bibliopoche.blogspot.com/2010/03/derapages-de-harlan-ellison.html
Closing paragraph, translated: "All through the book, the direct and energetic style of Harlan Ellison - who puts a lot of himself into his work - envelops the reader in a disturbing and oppressive atmosphere - with a little humor - that doesn't leave the reader indifferent."

Also positive earlier:
http://www.salle101.org/pages/chroniques-ecrites/derapages.html
"In 21 narratives Ellison deals with little moments when everything tips over, where it all breaks down; those moments that are closer than you think. Right next to you. There. Too late."

In case I forgot to ever mention it, the whole new Twilight Zone has been out on DVD there since 2007/8, in three boxes of 4(!) discs each (so not divided strictly by season, which has led to some irritation).
www.amazon.fr/quatri%C3%A8me-dimension-twilight-zone-vol/dp/B000P12MMI/
(They're wrong, it's not subititled, it's dubbed.)

Zeock's Obit
John Zeock

John J. Zeock, age 56 of Conshohocken, a Pharmaceutical Technician, died on Tuesday, March 30, 2010.

He was born in Philadelphia on March 19, 1954, son of Anna Marie (DiLemmo) Zeock and the late John M. Zeock.

John was a parishioner of St. Matthew RC Church in Conshohocken.

He graduated LaSalle Prep High School, class of 1972 on a full academic scholarship. John then earned his Masters Degree in English Literature from Villanova University.

He managed his family’s drug store in Conshohocken, Zeock’s Pharmacy, as a Pharmaceutical Technician for many years. John was a member of MENSA and a 1986 Jeopardy contestant.

He served as Judge of Elections for Whitemarsh Township. He was an avid reader and amateur screenwriter, who had friendships and correspondences with many famous authors and screenwriters such as Steve Friedman, Stephen King etc. He was a Science Fiction fan, who loved ‘Doctor Who.’ A lasting tribute to the love, kindness and compassion that characterized him as a person, John’s sister Mariellyn lives on with the kidney he donated to her.

John is survived by a brother Michael A. (Frances) of Lafayette Hill; a sister Mariellyn Zeock of Conshohocken; six godchildren; two nieces Stephanie M. Saxton and Brittany A. Roncace.

Relatives and friends may pay respects on Wednesday, April 7 from 9-10:25 a.m. at St. Matthew RC Church, 3rd Ave. and Fayette St., Conshohocken.

A funeral mass will commence in the church at 10:30 a.m. Interment is private in Calvary Cemetery at the convenience of the family.

In lieu of flowers memorial donations in John’s memory may be made to the Stephen & Darragh Friedman Scholarship Fund, c/o The Family Film Show, P.O. Box 42, Devault, PA 19432.

Arrangements are by the William A. Moore Funeral Home, 708 Fayete St., Conshohocken.

I will take a few days off but I could not let this pass:

Barney, I mentioned John in the post before the Obama quip, which I speed posted before thinking, but you treated it like some slam of John. I say God bless John and I hope he is at peace, but don't read into something that doesnt' exist. Not fair.

Graham, you don't know me so do not misrepresent what I said. I am on the far left, so how could I be a redneck?

Better that we remember John and quite this foolish bashing.

God bless John.

--someone will mention today's celebrity death beeper casualty -

John Forsythe has left us. God damnit!

SSDD
Today, Frank said something incendiary and someone took the bait. And we remembered John. In a few minutes (probably while I type this) someone will mention today's celebrity death beeper casualty and someone else will try and find a connection to Harlan.

Today on my Facebook page I posted the Warren Ellis FREAKANGELS skip week post, a comic strip cartoon about future disaster vehicles, an article about prosecuting the Pope for sex crimes, an article about Moses King and his connection to Fritz Lang's vision, got a site link up to Paleofuture, posted the Muppets covering M.O.P's ANTE UP, cross-posted a funny piece about my friend Ken viciously pranking pedophiles on Chatroulette, made a connection between Steven Wright and Lewis Carroll and posted a funny photo of poet Percy Bysshe. All while posting books, pulling books and packing books.

And Steve wonders WHY I sometimes hate on this board.

Enjoy Frank. He certainly continues to charm the ass off me.

Sincerely - Barney

Frank Church, who are you always so obnoxious? It really grates sometimes. "I warned you guys in an era where politics means nothing and the world is run by corporations that one of their presidential figureheads means nothing. I'm prescient." Yeah, so did the whole Republican Party. Tiresome stuff indeed. Are you ever able to communicate in ways that don't make you come off as a gloating baseball cap-wearing American redneck?

Believe it or knot!
"Republican National Committee?"

"Michael Steele. please."

"May I take a message? The chairman seems to be tied up."

Stay tuned for the Alll New "Republicans Gone Wild", hosted by Bob Dole, brought to you by Viagra!

Googel Book Settlement?
The io9 site has a summary of the Google Book Settlement contract:

http://io9.com/5501426/5-ways-the-google-book-settlement-will-change-the-future-of-reading

The more I read about the Settlement proposal, the more dubious it appears to me. But I fear the issue is of such off-putting complexity and that there are so many unanswered questions regarding it, that it may end up sanctioned by the harried and ill-advised.

Have any of the writers among the pavilion regulars done copious research and meditation? Can you impart some wisdom to one more scribe wandering in the digital ether, a weary schmuck who wanted only, so long ago, to write Bantam (if not Lion) paperbacks that would be stocked in Rexall spin racks…

Many thanks.

RIP John Zeock. I so wanted it to be a joke.

***

STEVE: You are so very right.

***

Day two of Norwescon. Hope to meet Mr. Skillingstead today after a panel, not that he knows it. :)

I am very proud of my hubby for continuing with his store and being the best man he can be.


shagin

DWST Review
Nice review of DWST at Huffington Post:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joseph-smigelski/harlan-ellison-dreams-wit_b_521341.html

Wanted to bring some good news today...

You all dumped on me when I warned you all about Obama.

"Give him a chance," you said.

Ha.

Drill baby drill.

"Not God"

You have hit upon why it is Harlan and Susan suffer so many losses.

They have touched so many lives.

Because, contrary to what many in the world would have you believe, Harlan has many more friends than enemies.

From the obit: In lieu of flowers memorial donations in John’s memory may be made to the Stephen & Darragh Friedman Scholarship Fund, c/o The Family Film Show, P.O. Box 42, Devault, PA 19432.

Obituary for John Zeock
http://www.timesherald.com/articles/2010/04/02/obituaries/doc4bb54859b5afd874190967.txt

(see last item)

My deepest condolences to his family and loved ones.

Question for God, Whom I Assume Trolls This Board Regularly:
You've taken quite a few of Harlan's friends recently. Why not take a few of his enemies instead?

RIP John Zeock
I had hoped that one day soon John and I would be able to get together, as we are in the same area, and meet as fellow Webderlanders. I am terribly sorry that won't happen. My deepest condolences to those who knew and loved him. I would have liked to.

Jenn Mossholder:

My condolences, for sure!

Z.
Mr. Ellison,

Thank you for your post about John. He was very proud to be friends with you, and was a staunch promoter/defender of your work. I own at least a dozen of your books that John gave me in his attempt to persuade me that you were a great writer. I always pretended ambivalence, hoping he'd give me a few more of your books (it worked). He was at my wedding (our 31st Anniversary was yesterday) and he was godfather to my oldest son. He was my good friend, and truly one of a kind.

Thank you for the opportunity to write these words.

Zeock
He was 56.

Those of you who ever received a written letter, feel blessed. I live 45 minutes from his family (and have for 36 years) and it was weird when Z got an email addy and then a FB account ;)

I talked to him last Sunday night. I have a letter from him; we were "Doctor Who" comrades, not HE (sorry).

You may contact me off list if you want to send your condolences and I will pass along to his family.

TV then and now, etc.
r.i.p. sorry for the loss of Zoeck....was he that old?

I do think competition from cable has made for better written television (although all the good stuff being *premium* drives me crazy; on the other hand non-premium cable networks like AMC or USA tend to actually have MORE commercials than broadcast so you're paying for the privilege of watching ads!) Also there are more "serial" dramas that continue storylines from episode to episode and allow things like character development.

On the negative side....we also have cheesy reality shows and things like pseudo-science, religion and freak-show sensationalism claiming to be "educational" programming. I think this is degrading even PBS where there is now way too much self-help and financial guru stuff.

I enjoy LOST. I've never given up on it, but I'm not too obsessive about all the details. The show is probably long past the point where they have zero chance of an ending that will satisfy everyone...the producers even say they now just want to resolve it to the satisfaction of the main characters, not the fans!

Are movies getting worse? What is in theaters is geared to the teen-age market that goes out to movies most. Things like adolescent comedies that appeal to that market are essentially critic-proof. More discerning audiences stay home and watch DVDs (like my parents who have a netflix membership and rent a different movie every week.)

I guess at least since the original STAR WARS fantasy movies have (mostly) tended to be about the special effects...now they have 3D it's gone to another level, with "let's see what we can throw at the audience."

Am I going to see the CLASH OF THE TITANS remake? Probably...but the original was Ray Harryhausen (!) effects which I think are a *greater* achievement in some ways. "Kids, they used to have to do all this stuff by *hand*. They did't have a computer and they didn't have any Undo command so if you messed it up it had to be done all over from the beginning!"

Kristin
just random musings

John Zeock
I have known "Z" for 36 years. He came to the hospital after the birth of my first babe and my dad and he went to high school together.

Mass and Memorial is Wednesday, April 7.

John was loved and admired by many.

Joe madden

I am spit slick and wet hen madder than felicity regarding one’s apparently misnomer-like unreading of S O K. World’s grief and left of center this backdates the finest of the worser reviews I’ve nearly constipated. And I mean EVER.

seriously,
Rick

Just finished Song of Kali
One of the most over rated first novels I have ever encountered. And for those of you who suspect Simmonds of being "righter" than you originally thought, look no further than this novel. Shame really. I really love T T, C C and C O T N. Hated what he did to Duane in S O N. Despise him for what he did to Victoria in this novel.

On a brighter note, looking forward to the second screen adaptation of The Killer Inside Me. Just re read it and Thompson is the MAN.

If you haven't already read it, pick up Darwyn Cooke's masterful graphic novel The Hunter by Mr. Westlake. It's the first in a series and Cooke was given permission to use the name Parker by Donald before he passed.

Finished the first draft of my screenplay. Maybe you'll get a chance to see it someday.

Joe

Sorry about the passing of your friend.

Vincent Leonard Price II
Dear Vinny,

I loved you in LAURA, DRAGONWYCK, THE BARON OF ARIZONA, HIS KIND OF WOMAN, and your amusing turn as Omar Khayyam in SON OF SINBAD. You almost upstage Lili St. Cyr. And who can forget you in THEATRE OF BLOOD? Your director, Douggie Hickox, also directed my HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES. We seriously thought about getting you to play Dr. Mortimer in that. My wife treasures the picture of you and her from THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE premiere. Is it true you and Bart Marshall kept cracking up trying to do the final scene of the original FLY?

Have a nice life!

R.I.P. Mr. Zeock
Dear Mr. Ellison et al.:

Sorry to learn of Mr. Zeock's passing. I enjoyed reading his posts for the last two years.

R.I.P.

Regards from flood-purged Essex County, Massachusetts (22 in. of water in basement and a nasty chest cold)

William Sherman
Boxford, MA

Life is sure generous with rude shocks lately. Now it John Zeock. When I read the name, I thought it couldn't be someone who contributed to this round table.

But apparently it was. Damnit. My condolences on a loss of another good guy.

Chuck

British writer/actor Stephen Fry reviews the IPAD.

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1976935-1,00.html


Man I'm sure glad I voted for Obama! If McCain had won the elction he would have done something stupid like drill for oil off the coast of the US. What a relief we don't have to worry about that!

Christopher Moore
Harlan,
Hi, how are you? Chris Moore is a friend of mine and I e-mailed him what you wrote. Chris would like to send you a copy of "Fool". Just give the word, and I'll give Chris the ok.
Now I'm going to overstep my bounds and say Chris will be in LA on April 9th. I know he'd love to meet you. So if I help arrange a meeting, if you're interested say the word and we'll figure it out. If Chris can, he's pulling in large crowds.
Best way to put it is to quote one of my favorite writers. It's from a story called, "Grail".
"Meester, whatever you want, that's wot you gonna get. Ah'm at your service."
Hodge

THIS version
of the HUFFPO review of "Dreams" is the one to read:

http://tinyurl.com/yjsear4

Why?

"The 2008 flick flick is Dreams with Sharp Teeth, cursive and directed by Erik Nelson. Watching this exceptional flick is an undergo on a par with existence grabbed by a cordial maniac."

"TV makes him angry, and Harlan thrives on emotion the artefact a bee thrives on honey. But he takes that anger and processes it finished digit of the most fictive brains on the planet. The termination is a literate depot of incredible stories. One of his books is capably named Angry Candy, and serendipitous for us perspicacious readers, it tastes shit good."

Shit YEAH.

PS: And if your friend gets his ass kicked by gooddam EMO kids, the softest, whineyest crybabies in the world, he DESERVES every blow that he got, 'groupies' (sounds like he loves himself) or not. He's an EMBARRASSMENT! Kick his ass YOURSELF for his horseshit! tell him you're doing it for Dashboard Confessional!

Kafkahead, there is a MAJOR difference between Harlan and your idiot - and he IS an idiot - friend. Harlan was DEFENDING himself when attacked when younger, NOT instigating stupid stunts that GOT him attacked. Your friend is one of those annoying pricks who starts fights when he has numerous people with him (oh so very BRAVE, after all) and expects everybody but himself to fight, and tries to lay a guilt trip on whoever doesn't live up to his 'manly' standards in his oh-so-mature (water balloons? Gimme a break!) endeavors. He's like the women who start shit with guys on a night out and then let the poor guy with them get beaten up to 'prove' himself to them. It's pathetic and he's a clown you'd be much better off avoiding before he gets you into further hot water. And I don't think using Harlan as an agony uncle is a wise move, cos he has other things to do, but I suppose that's entirely up to him to decide.

Guilt and its torturing minions
Dear Mr. Ellison

It's me again, Kafka, with an awful urge to beseech you to give me some advice. A couple of days ago, I went out with a friend of mine, who I shall only name with the pseudonym "Rudd" (ask me not why I give him such a pseudonym: sometimes, the mind opens up the pantry of names, only to find a few leftovers to feed to its peers). As we met his groupies in a local mall, they had the smart-ass idea to play a prank on a couple of emo kids (the whiny equivalent of Gothic wanna-bes). I never did partake in this: I just followed them around because of my friend.

To make a long story short, the prank (which involved water balloons) backfired horribly, ending with me and the groupies fleeing with an angry mob on our tracks and my friend receiving damage to his eye, and co-incidentally, his optic nerve, as a consequence of facing said mob . Today, I met up with him to pick up some books, something that he told me struck me like a shard of glassed guilt: the day said incident occurred, I brought with me my copy of "Dreams with sharp teeth" to show him who exactly was Mr. Ellison, and he saw everything on that DVD.

Thus, did Rudd tell me that (and I quote) "Harlan would have helped him without thinking, that he would have fought the group of angry peons with his bare fists. You know why? Because he's got some balls. You didn't have any that day, man. Without balls, there ain't no courage". He's not grudging towards me or his friends, but his words scarred my mind and heart. My one question is this: was it wise of me to flee, or if it had been better for me to fight them? If I am really that much of a coward, or just sensible?
I'm terribly confused, and the analogy he used just made me feel worse. Please, please, answer me on this one.

Kafka out

It's a Joke, son. . .
While reading the Huffington Post review of Dreams With Sharp Teeth I noticed this link about the Australian ambassador getting pissed over a joke just made by Robin Williams. By complaining, the guy has given the joke a great deal more exposure, thereby insuring that more people will remember it.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/01/aussie-pm-rips-robin-will_n_521592.html

Sometimes I wonder why the Hell I moved to this country, I must admit...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-schaeffer/the-evangelical-mainstrea_b_520990.html

Dear Mr. Charles Edward Pogue,

I have always been deeply perturbed and offended by your inexplicable animosity towards a possible cameo on my behalf within Mr. Cronenberg's re-evaluation of one of my previous films. So much so, in fact, that I have decided to rise from my grave and feast upon your brains.

I have already visited Mr. Cronenberg's homestead, and I can personally guarantee he will not be churning out any more of his "body-horror" pictures - or any pictures at all, for that matter.

I shall be knocking upon your door by midnight at the latest. We have so much to catch up on, you and I...

JOHN ZEOCK

We knew each other for a very long time.

Again, once more, too often these days, there are no words.

John Zeock's pal, Harlan

Condolences
Sorry to her about John; he seemed to be a good guy, erudite and witty.
Maybe someone can find out how we can send our thoughts to his family?

Oh, my God noooo! John seemed like a great guy. Death is just evil, evil! The raven lives to fly.

Sadness is alive.

John's voice and regular presence will be deeply missed.




(As to whether this is an April 1st prank, I sincerely doubt anyone would be this heartless and cavalier.)

Harlan in "Huffington Post"!!!

http://tinyurl.com/y93zrjq

John J. Zeock

I am deeply saddened by the loss of Mr. Zeock.
I know only of his words here, but I've been feeling the worry of loss for the last few hours, now confirmed.

Harlan, Susan, my sincerest commiseration. Courage.

John Zeock
I stress that this is raw, needs-to-be-confirmed information, not verification ... but:

http://www.facebook.com/friends/?id=1233019587&flid&view=everyone&q&nt=0&nk=0&s=50&st=0#!/frances.zeock?v=wall

See the post yesterday at 4:58 pm. (Note: You have to be logged in to Facebook BEFORE you hit the link; otherwise you'll go to a different page.)

I'm also hoping the Zeock news is untrue. If it isn't, he'll be missed.

A different take on the Ellison/Willis imbroglio (towards bottom):
http://locusmag.com/2010/April1st_NewsToDate.html

I just spent a few minutes trying to find out some more details on John Zeock's passing and came up totally empty. No obituary in either of the Philadelphia Papers, nor in the Allentown Morning Call (John had said he was in Conshohocken and the blog that listed news of his death came from Muhlenberg College, which is in Allentown). The only verification I was able to find was the blog listed by Barney & Brian. Can anyone who is more Internet saavy than I find out anything else?

My hope is that it is not true, as I have enjoyed Mr. Zeock's postings here for many years.

More quarters
The 50 states were released in 1999. In 2009 they did DC and territories:

District of Columbia Quarter
Puerto Rico Quarter
Guam Quarter
American Samoa Quarter
US Virgin Islands Quarter
Northern Mariana Islands Quarter

In 2010 it's locales:

Hot Springs Quarter
Yellowstone Quarter
Yosemite Quarter
Grand Canyon Quarter
Mount Hood Quarter

Aw, crap, again. Meeting sane and smart people on the Internet's always a pleasure... so losing someone like John Zeock's a real blow.

Aw, crap, again. Meeting sane and smart people on the Internet's always a pleasure... so losing someone like John Zeock's a real blow.

Oh, Crap
The news of John Zeock's death is a stunner. Condolences who any who knew him in the flesh.

*

In light of recent comments, is it politically incorrect to note here that I watch LOTS of television?

It may be that I grew up, and remain, a die-hard movie buff; but the quality ratio vis-a-vis movies and television, as it existed at the time of the GLASS TEAT books, has reversed itself completely. Back then (or around then; I'm a couple of years off in these examples); the best popular movies were things like THE GODFATHER, and THE FRENCH CONNECTION, and BONNIE AND CLYDE, and SERPICO, and suchlike, whereas just about all television was on the level of THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES. The best movies were better, by an order of magnitude, than almost all tv shows.

These days, that ratio has reversed. Good and great movies continue to be made, so it's still possible to find them, but the chances of them making it to the local multiplex are minimal, and you're more likely to find multiple screenings of the latest gaga CGI films, torture porn extravangas, and romantic comedies stupid enough to make Tracy and Hepburn spin in their respective graves. There is, for instance, no showing of THE GHOST WRITER or THE MESSENGER accessible by me, but I can go rush out to see HOT TUB TIME MACHINE and TYLER PERRY'S WHY DID I GET MARRIED TWO at a million nearby sticky-floor quads. I starve for the good movies, which are often poorly-distributed indies, but cannot get to them.

Meanwhile, in our era, as the three networks that had a stranglehold on TV production in the GLASS TEAT era became just the smallest part of the programming available, the lowest common denominator is no longer the tyrant it once was, and it's become possible to program stuff for people with more than one neuron. Better yet, the "series" format has made it possible to tell intricate stories in long-form that could not be stuffed into the most epic theatrical film. I adore, for instance, BREAKING BAD, which is a terrific portrait of the slippery slope of evil, and am enjoying marathons of THE WIRE, a complex crime drama by such tv hacks as Dennis Lehane, George Pelecanos.

TV and movies have switched places. They did a while back.

Sorry for posting twice, but confirmation of John Zeock's passing compels me to add my very small voice to the condolences. I like many others enjoyed John's frequent postings here, mainly because he was so passionate about the things he loved and much of which he and I shared. One day I mentioned I owned a collection of SMOKEY STOVER comics that I had read to death and was offering to anyone here who might want it (since Smokey strips are very hard to come by), and John Zeock asked for the book and got it. I received in return a lovely, handwritten letter of thanks accompanied by the 1989 Round Top edition of Harlan's "Footsteps", completely out of the blue. It reminded me of pre-Internet days, when reaching out to other fans involved postage stamps and receiving something nice in the mail, with no strings attached and no money changing hands. I wish I had told John how much that meant to me.

I'm not a terribly active poster here, and much of the time I'm not sure I'm even welcome as far as some important personages are concerned. But John was one of the people who reached out and responded and made me want to come back to this place regularly, and that is no small thing. I wish love and warmth and kindly days ahead for his family and friends.

Sadly, this blog seems to confirm that sad news about John.

http://jazzorsomethinglikeit.blogspot.com/

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

***Harlan*** I received that list/catalog the day after Doug got his. VERY much appreciated. As much for the dates and locations as the simple notion that a decent portion of all that has been preserved.

I was closing in on a similar list of the stuff I have when my life went on a big pointless two year circle. Some of the longer decent audio and video chunks from my collection have been digitized. Some have not. I have been using a couple of regulars around here for this. I'm GUESSING the folks who did the ON THE ROAD CD'S did yours. IF you think they need to be in the loop on "my" stuff, let me know. I wouldn't have a problem with that - in exchange for copies. Nothing urgent. Perhaps a hand off in Wisconsin or something.

As you can imagine, I also have a decent valise of all those micro-cassette recordings I've done over the years. Perhaps 150 or so. There is most certainly a bunch of material in there that doesn't appear on your list, going back to 1978. The audio on those is ALL over the map, and world enough and time, I may just have to transcribe what I can get from them and then archive them for whoever might be even crazier than I am to preserve for posterity. It will still have been worth it, as I have a "scheme" for how some of the smaller more random snippets may still be used to your advantage in a book or books. Doug liked the scheme so I know I'm on the right track.

In any case, thanks again for the catalog. Other package also received. Revenge package on it's way.

Hugs to you and Suze - B

John Zeock
I wished that this was an April Fool's joke in the worst possible taste, but I see corroboration of this over here:
http://jazzorsomethinglikeit.blogspot.com/

The internet has been a blessing and a curse to me. In some form or fashion, I have made my living for the past decade or so because of it. That is the blessing. The curse (among many) is that you "meet" many people, leaving you to discover a mere fraction of their grace and erudition.

My sympathies and prayers are with Mr. Zeock's family and friends.

For the rest of us, let's all get along while we are at Unk's house (I'm the one in the corner, looking at the LPs, with a glass of ice water) and take a moment to remember what we just lost. As addled as I am, I had to cheat by going to Google and looking up "John Zeock" and "Pavilion". I will miss his postings, but I truly missed an opportunity to tell him. So here is a hug to our host, his dear wife, Rick, Sandra, Adam-Troy, Mark, Frank, Semi-Writer, anyone else here that has been nice to me and I will even hug "Jack Napier" even though I threw my only righteous fit in here because of him (sorry 'bout that).

To quote Graeme Garden from a "Goodies" episode, "I loves yah's all".

Brian Phillips

John Zeock
Oh, damn! He was a good guy... God damn it!

Please let that post about John Zeock not be true.

John J. Zeock died suddenly on March 30, 2010. John's erudite criticism in letters, stories and phone conversations promoted Harlan and other deserving artists to a circle of friends now mourning the loss of their favorite writer.

Puerto Rican Quarter
My dear ol' daddy (83 this year) was kind enough to mail me a Puerto Rican quarter a few months back--it was almost an obligation, though, as he's Puerto Rican. Kind of like when "Chico and the Man" came on the air; although still a child, I felt obligated to watch the Hungarican do his stuff.
Supporting one of "our" people, or at least as close as you could get to a gen-u-ine Puerto Rican in the '70s.

On a related note, as "24" winds to a close, I've nabbed a background/extra part on the show for one day next week. This is the first extra gig that I've had since "Men of a Certain Age" last year and is some much-needed work. On the waning days of a popular show, to boot. They were looking for someone with a-- well, let's just say "ethnic" appearance from a specific geographic region (so as not to give away anything). So apparently when you combine the Puerto Rican / Spanish heritage with French-Canadian / Irish genes, you get THAT look... or at least what Central Casting interprets as THAT look. Hey, it's a gig. Good enough for me!

Right back at you!
I love you to Mr. E. I've just spent a lovely hour's excursion back to my boyhood, visiting with Mr. Gnagy (he still has a website...though he died in 1981) via you tube and Learning to Draw again in wonderful B&W. (You can still buy his Learn to Draw kits too!)

Pogue, have I told you lately that I love you?

-he

CHUCK MESSER's 25 cent piece REPLY: PART TROIS
Cheezus, kid, you done hit the mother lode.

I have never actually WRITTEN anywhere of that memorable fright night! Lubbock, Texas, 1970! Floyd Sneed, drummer for Three Dog Night! The cops, the devil wind, the curse of the li'l yankee jewboy! I made broad and inveigling reference to it in an "Interim Memo" on pages 319-321 of the 1990 first edition of THE HARLAN ELLISON HORNBOOK, but never got around actually to setting it down in print, as best I can recall...

We pause for this sponsor's message:

Boys! Girls! If YOU would like to own a hardcover MINT first edition of Harlan Ellison's electrifying and informative book of memoir and essay, THE HARLAN ELLISON HORNBOOK, containing more than 50 essays (but not one about Lubbock, Texas) with a splendid Foreword by bestselling mystery novelist Robert Crais, personally signed by the electrifying and informative essayist himself, FOR A FRACTION OF WHAT AMAZON OR OTHERS will attempt to siphon out of you...well, kids, be the first or second in your neighborhood to hold this perfect, previously-untouched-by-human-hands volume merely by following kindly Unca' Harlan's tip, and
remitting $25 (that would be twenty-five dollars) plus shipping & handling of $5 (that would make it thirty dollars)
(and if you live in California you would add another goddam $2.44, which makes it a total of $32.44 and don't blame me, because who the fuck told you to live here, anyway?!?)

Now, kids, back to our thrilling story starring Rex Reason as Chuck Messer, boy questioner, with Ahna Capri as Eleanor Roosevelt and Elisha Cook, Sr. as The Old Man of the Mountain.

I'll probably never get around to writing the memoir of that night, so you are within reach, for a mere quarter, of a story that Dannelke, Richmond, Lane, Norris and Zuzel--to name but a core group--would maim and kill to hear raconteured mit details AND sound effects! (I do a dynamite howling killer wind!)

Which doesn't mean that all the rest of you should pause mere a moment before buying that great book by writing a good check for the amount(s) noted above, clearly printing to whom you wish the book personalized, and rushing it into the mails to

SEND ME THAT HORNBOOK!
c/o HERC
PO Box 55548
Sherman Oaks, CA
91413-0548

And stop glowering at me like that, all the rest of you. Just because Messer flopped into a pot of gold in the Dempsey Dumpster, it is not unbecoming for me to try and turn an honest buck out of this disaster!

Charm...ah say...CHARMingly, boy...Yr. Pal, Harlan

Blast from the Past
Oh, Harlan, you made my heart go pitty-pat with a pang of nostalgia. Jon Gnagy! Man, he must've had a pretty good run on the telly, if you were watching him as a kid. I WATCHED him as a kid. I was even the proud owner of a Jon Gnagy sketch pad and pastel kit!

Harlan -

On the down side, the territory mintings were dramatically smaller than the states (72 million Northern Mariana vs 517 million Hawaii, for example (that's across both the Philly and Denver mints)).

That said, Puerto Rico and Guam have turned up in circulation here in VA (my cousin collects them); no reason to believe the others won't make their way eventually. I DO have a stray Puerto Rico here, but it's horribly discolored. Not sure with what it came into contact - antifreeze, I suspect. Not a specimen worth sending along.

Amparion

Take an airship to the southern fringe of the Great Toonolian Marsh, and engage the Gridley Wave. The reception is sterling in that place.

Kaor!
Rick

Chuck Messer
How much fan could a fanwanker wank
If a fanwanker could wank fan?
He would wank what fan a fanwanker could wank
If a fanwanker could wank fan.

CHUCK MESSER's 25 cent piece REPLY: PART DEUX
You heard rightly. Tornado, not hurricane. Town in Texas. I was on tour with the rock band Three Dog Night. I've told this tale of terror in print, a couple of times, but you'll need Scott or Tim or Barney or Doug or Michael Zuzel to get you the correct provenance. I know I did an essay on Three Dog Night, and even did one of The Glass Teat columns about it, close on to the time it happened, but damned if my Fibber McGee's Closet of a brain knows where that particular memory is presently stored...but...

I keep my promises. If you get your phone number and a good time of day (LA local) to me via Our Sanctified Webmaster Rick, or some other non-public venue, I will call you and TELL IT to you. Which oughtta be with at least a quarter.

Yr. Pal, Harlan

AMPARION


Oh my dear dear Good Fellow. Preaching church to choir. Or some catechism thereto close on. I first peered through into the tv terrain in 1948. (My beloved Dad had added this gray and necromantic newfangled device to the stock of radios, cameras, mixmasters, toasters one was required to hawk in a jewelry store, and he brought home one evening, in Painesville, Ohio, a small Muntz, or such label, plonked it down on the bureau in his and my Mom's bedroom, plugged it in, adjusted the crap out of it, and I saw my first show. Jon Gnagy, a sketch pen and pastel artist drew on a large pad on an easel.

I watched.

Years and years later, I drifted into the sideline of writing "tv criticism." THE GLASS TEAT columns that became two books. Though I am obsessed with "keeping courant" so I don't wind up--as old Jews say at this time of year--a beck numbuh--last month's news--only a t'ing what you could use wrepp fish--I tried to keep up as minimally as possible, without actually watching. Exceptions persisted: Lost, Dinosaurs, Deadwood, Carnivale, Burn Notice. But, essentially, and more and more and more as these days pass, less and less and pfffft...nothing.

You speak from the mountaintop, dear friend. And out here, with plugs in ears, and head buried in sand, a like mind hears and responds...pfffft.

Yours in surcease, I remain, Yr. Pal, Harlan

REPLY TO GARY BRAY
What a kindly and unexpected post. Thank you.

If you have access to that Christopher Moore site, could you pass along the following:

HARLAN ELLISON would like you to know:

1. He takes such a compliment, from a writer as beguiling as yourself, as a great smiling compliment.

2. Right back atcha, kid! And confesses that it was A DIRTY JOB
that made Ellison, unbecomingly, giggle like a goldfish.

3. You got nothing else to command your attention, ask around, and someone'll hip you how to get here to Unca Harlan's Art Deco Dining Pavillion, whereat we can cut up a few touches, as Diz used to put it.

Yr. Pal, Harlan

(and thankee, Mr. Bray.)

Territorial & possibly possessive quarters
Yep. The Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, even Guam, American Samoa, and (brace yourself) the Northern Mariana Islands: they're part of the 2009 District of Columbia and U.S. Territories Quarters Program (see http://www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/dcAndTerritories/). You can image the jaw-drop when I encountered my first of these, Guam, having at that point never heard of the program -- let's see, what have we here, ANOTHER New Hampshire, perhaps? Guam? GUAM!?!

Harlan: The item is on its way via first class as recommended. As far as remittance, wellll...

You once mentioned bringing a tornado or somesuch calamity down on a richly deserving township or other. I'd love to hear about that one, if you've the time or inclination.

Otherwise, as they say in Joisey, "Fugeddaboutit!"

By the way folks, I LIKE the term fanwank. It has a cadence that is tricky, a little wicky-wacky-wicky.

Someone who provides fanwanks would be a fanwanker, wouldn't they? I'd sign up for that.

I'm a fanwanker and I'm proud
I'm part of an original crowd
I'm a 'wanker, he's a 'wanker,
She's a 'wanker, we're all 'wankers,
Wouldn't you like to be a 'wanker, too?
Be a 'wanker, be a fanwanker
Be a 'wanker, be a fanwanker...

Chuck

Me And My Shadow Screen
I stopped watching episodic television pretty much for good about 1990. No reason. I got busy with lots of stuff, I began to resent being manipulated by storytellers promising Big Answers to Small Mysteries, and merely multiplying Small Mysteries as a sop to further market rice to those already knee deep in white.

One of my last indulgences was Twin Peaks, which I still have a sweet spot for. David Lynch made lots of pretty pictures from the sows ear storyline

I never watched Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Not one moment of one episode

I saw perhaps two, three episodes of Babylon Five. It seemed spiffy enough. But I spit out the lure and swam on.

I've never seen a moment of Lost.

And now I don't have to.

I feel both diminished, and strangely liberated. Cognitive dissonance my second most favorite illusion.

I'd enjoy to think that it's a sign of great wisdom, sagacity even. That I am a paragon of taste.

Alas. I believe it a sign of age. even boredom.


It's why i prefer history to fiction, increasingly. The stories are the same, but you have the consolation that someone really was dumber than you in reality, not just make believe.

I can no longer make myself believe. They are shadows on a cloud, as I lay on the grass, nothing more.

I am diminished by this.

But diminishment is the game, and I am the player.

Harlan, we can only hope. Maybe it's a desert thing. I remember when I lived in Phoenix I felt like I wanted to kill.

Arabs and Jews and those durn nutty Gentiles need to put down the guns, knives, spoons, sporks and have a hugathon.

EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE A PRODUCTIVE ONLY -GOOD PASSOVER

There's a!!!!!!VIRGIN ISLANDS!!!!!!!!quarter, too??????

Oiy, mein yiddishe kopf is a-bursting.

Havana gilla.
Have TWO nagillas.
Have a six-pak of nagillas.

Hey, Frank, howzabout ALL those loonies out midEast there knock off that fighting shit after, what, five,ten thousand years? The noise is just (as Stan Freberg put it) PIERCING!

Good yontiff to everyone. Harlan

FINDER DOUG

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!There's a PUERTO RICAN state quarter ????????????

Hully geezus! You're making that up!

HarAWEDlan

STEVE SWANSON

It's a deal.

Ask your question, knowing in advance that I never met either of them personally, live, in the skin.

Thanks. Yr. Pal, Harlan

Thank you for referencing Charles Beaumont!

I've loved so many of his awesome scripts - the BEST of the old TZ shows, in addition to his episode ('The Long Silence') on The Hitchcock Hour, and Pal's '7 Faces of Dr. Lao' - AND felt awful reading about the illness that beset him in the middle of his career; HOWEVER, I've NEVER read his stories.

Now that you brought it up, I WILL get Beaumont's collections, and very soon!


**NOW:

I just discovered the Republicans' theme song:

I don’t know what they have to SAY,
It makes no difference any WAY...
WHATEVER it IS - I’m AGAINST it!

No matter what it IS, or who COMMENCED it -
I’m AGAINST it.

Your proposition may be GOOD
But let’s have one thing UNDERSTOOD -
Whatever it IS...I’m AGAINST it!
And even when you’ve changed it or CONDENSED it,
I’m AGAINST it.

(Sung originally by Groucho Marx in DUCK SOUP)

Roger, I wish you a speedy recovery my friend. Hopefully we will be able to meet up again at another Con at some point in the future

Bodkin, my thank for pointing out The American Fantasy Tradition, as I just ordered myself a copy from Amazon. As someone who was late arriving to Lost, and is slowly working his way through Season 4 on DVD, it is refreshing to know that it has kept the interest of many on this board, including our host.

All the best,

Mark

I appreciate the best wishes from those who commented.
I appreciate the comment Harlan. I had two choices of clinics and surgeons to do the operation. One of them my mother had used and they botched the surgery on one eye and the other was the clinic I had been going to for a couple of years. I chose the latter.

I do not look like a pirate darn it because my right eye is covered with a round plastic disc that is taped over the eye. It comes off tomorrow. The hardest part was getting up at 5:00 AM this morning because I needed to be there a little before 6:00 AM. I go back tomorrow morning to have the shield taken off.

Harlan if you have collected the whole series of quarters there are I believe four more, like the Virgin Islands and a couple of other US properties. I'm sure someone else collecting them can give the places all four are from. I hope I cleaned up all the typos I'm having a terrible time typing this.

The Howling Man
Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble have affordable copies of "The American Fantasy Tradition by Brian M. Thomsen" available. It contains "The Howling Man", along with one or two selections by our esteemed host.

Cameos & Fanwank
Cameos are meant to delight or throw a curve, and I'm sorry, Ben Winfield, there's no real room for delight in the Cronenberg-Pogue version of THE FLY, a claustrophobic tragedy that barely allows room for its two leads. By the mid-'80s, Vincent Price had long become a signifier of grisly camp and his appearance would've been disruptive to the film's tone for no other reason than pandering - or "fanwank"; a practice not as lucrative in the '80s, incidentally, as it is today. (Price would've been GREAT, though, as Brian O'Blivion in VIDEODROME.)

I'm not against cameos where they add something - whether it's the bizarrely perfect celebrity appearances in ZOMBIELAND and THE MAN WITH TWO BRAINS, which MAKE both films, or Sam Fuller showing up in PIERROT LE FOU and Buster Keaton playing cards in SUNSET BOULEVARD, which richly inform the subtext. Speaking of that last one, Billy Wilder was a master of knowing what baggage to use from any actor: He had Marilyn Monroe and Dean Martin play nameless self-parodies in SOME LIKE IT HOT and KISS ME, STUPID, respectively - Tom Ewell has a priceless Monroe gag in the former - and there's a wonderful moment in ONE, TWO, THREE where James Cagney weighs a grapefruit. Hitchcock was careful to get his own cameos out of the way early, though I am hard-pressed at the moment to remember how he handled it in THE WRONG MAN, his most realistic and depressing movie.

But fanwank - let's call it fannish pandering for the sake of pandering - is bullshit if there's no real place for it in a story.

RE: THE FLY
Agreed. A cameo by Mr. Price would have been a distraction. Also: I don't feel "fanwank" was the reason THE FLY was remade - it was remade because there was a chance to tell a more realistic version of the story. It neither dismisses nor pays homage to the original film, it's simply its own thing.

the Fly

"...did (Cronenberg) feel a "how-do-you-do" by Mr. Price would have drawn attention away from the leads? "

Not the leads, the story. It would have distracted from the story.

Cronenberg (and Pogue) went to great lengths to create a story that felt real, where the willing suspension of disbelief was not a heavy lift. They had some interesting things to say about love and disease and aging and obsession and a compelling, disturbing vehicle with which to say those things. Anything that wasn't strongly in service of that story did not belong.

In a serious drama, the question of cameos is not "does it hurt?" but rather "does it help?" A wink and a wiggle from even a terrific guy like Price would not have advanced the story, so it did not belong.

MM

Christopher Moore
Harlan,

Me and my wife attended a book signing by Christopher Moore yesterday in Chicago and my wife dropped your name to him -- as in, your recommendation of Moore as one of the writers you enjoy reading (a comment you made onstage at a 2006 convention in Minneapolis) was the reason she started reading him and subsequently fell in love with his books -- and he about jumped out of his chair when he heard that you were a fan. "Wow! Harlan said that? He's one of my idols. That is SO cool!" was his reaction. He was really jazzed. Anyway, thought you might want to know that he is also a fan of yours. I'm sure he'd love to hear from you, should you be interested. He has a web site at http://www.chrismoore.com, but alas I have been unable to find any way to directly contact the author through the site.

Gary

In Defense of Fanwank

Why this mild contempt for "tip-of-the-hats"? Why this vague hostility towards acknowledging the old to make way for the new? Please understand this goes beyond THE FLY '86; I've seen this curious attitude come more and more into prominence in the past decade. A bizarre contrast in both depending on the past (the vast flood of remakes lately), and pretending to sweep it under the couch like some sort of embarrassment (the current industry trend to emphasize the term "re-imagine" over "remake".)

Why has STAR TREK undergone a widely successful reboot? Fanwank.

Why is DOCTOR WHO still being directed, written, and produced by some of the most talented individuals in the British industry? Fanwank.

Why is George Lucas richer than God? Fanwank.

Why did Cameron's AVATAR make back twice its money's worth when by all rights, it probably should have tanked? Fanwank.

Why are Harlan Ellison's stories read and praised by millions of enthusiastic readers the world over? Fanwank.

Why was THE FLY remade in the first place? Fanwank.

Now, this isn't to say that fanwank has its own inevitable dark side. Overindulgence can lead to lack of originality, shallow characterization, sophomoric narratives, and sophomoric grammar. But if that's the case, shouldn't fellows like Quentin Tarantino be just as guilty as the average fan-fic spewing teenager?

Perhaps Mr. Cronenberg wanted THE FLY to be its own beast, and to his credit, it is. But did he feel a "how-do-you-do" by Mr. Price would have drawn attention away from the leads?

I suppose I'm spending too much thought on this. Either way, THE FLY is as much a classic in its own right as the original, and I don't see one being any more superior or inferior than the other. As others have already noted, the original's science is shot to hell, but frankly I've never believed the story concerned itself with the science anyway. The director & writer were clearly foregoing logic for the atmosphere of nightmare; Don Siegel pulled a similar stunt when he had Dana Wynter abruptly replaced by a pod person in the first BODY SNATCHERS.

Nowadays, that sort of massive plot hole wouldn't be allowed to fly except in super-mega-uber summer blockbusters, but is it a legitimate reason to dismiss the originals?

Begorrah! Bejaysus! Taking the whole "Where's me gold!?" thing from the Leprechaun movies a bit too far...

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20100318/NEWS03/3180335

your phone call
Harlan,

I'm glad you received BOTH articles on the masterpiece - or is disasterpiece - known as THE OSCAR. I am honored that you are cataloguing these for your "archives." That film and your writings bring me constant pleasure. Thanks for the phone message.

Jeff

Beaumont
As it happens -- beautifully -- I re-read "The Howling Man" just a couple of weeks ago, having the hankering to do so; and while I did that also re-read some other classic Beaumont, including "Fair Miss" and the impossible-to-believe-he-had-the-guts-to-do-this-way-back-when "The Crooked Man": all in THE HOWLING MAN.

I am hoping that Cruse and Lindelof have some more jokers up their respective sleevs, but am still enjoying the ride.

I make no secret of my love of Charles Beaumont's work. I was fourteen when I finagled Bantam's "Best of Beaumont" from a friend in a trade – no clue what I gave up for it at this late date – I might have had four sisters once, I really don’t recall - but I maintain it was the Best Deal Ever in the History of Time Until the Earth Explodes Like Krypton. And it was in that book I first read "The Howling Man". And "Free Dirt" and "The Jungle" and "The Crooked Man" (which was so so so far ahead of its time) and and and –

I preach Beaumont. I recommend Harlan to people, but I have purchased Beaumont's work second-hand and pressed it into the hands of people who appreciate great writing and have simply never read him, through scarcity or ignorance of him or both, and send them forth to enjoy. One can only hope for a "Collected Stories" at some future point.

That said, "The Howling Man" – in addition to its appearance in the collection that bears its name (the paperback version of the hardcover SELECTED STORIES) - can be found in the long-out-of-print 1982 Bantam paperback "Best of Beaumont" and (as Andrew indicates) Beaumont's collection "Night Ride and Other Journeys" (Bantam, 1960).

Also, Martin Greenberg and Charles Waugh adore this story, as its been in three anthologies they've edited (DEVILS, with Asimov; THE FANTASTIC WORLD WAR II, with McSherry and THE TWILIGHT ZONE: THE ORIGINAL STORIES with Matheson - a nice pick-up in its own right – 8 Beaumont tales, 8 Matheson, with classics like Bixby's "it's A Good Life" and Knight's "To Serve Man" among the many others included).

Good luck!

HARLAN – I'll sift my bag 'o quarters for a second DC quarter to pair with Chuck's when I get home. Might get lucky. Might not. Might just have Puerto Rico. Hard to say from work.

ALL - Dougie Pimps Hisself Moment: Tales of the Unanticipated #30 with my story "Tacklesmooches" drops tomorrow in the Midwest (and hopefully beyond - I see it on Barnes & Noble's website, so who knows?) Available through their website (www.totu-ink.com) for one more day at a discount off cover. (Harlan - your copy is in the mail this week.)

DC Quarter
I also have a DC quarter I will send you.

In your post to Mr. Messer you wrote "let me know what I owe you." So ... I've had something rumbling around in my mind about Kerouac and Bukowski that I've kinda answered for myself. You mentioned them both in an essay I recently reread.

So if I pay you a quarter, may I ask you a short, non-rambling question? No more than a 1 word reply expected. ($0.25/word!!!!)

(Actually I'm sending the quarter anyway because you host such a great site.)

Steve Swanson

Sara Slaymaker
I read your post and shook my head. The "Howling Man" collection? That much? Surely not...

I bought the Tor paperback from my favourite specialist book dealer here in Scotland when it came out ... 22 years ago! Oh, I see.

Anyway, you're absolutely right about the prices of this definitive collection, I'm afraid, but ... Abe Books has much more reasonable prices for the 1960 Bantam "Night Ride and Other Journeys", which contains "The Howling Man" and several other classics:

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=charles+beaumont&sts=t&tn=howling+man&x=86&y=10

CHUCK MESSER's 25 cent piece REPLY:
Bless ya, son, bless ya, helpin' out a poor beggar in the Agora.

Please remit to:

Harlan Ellison
c/o HERC
PO Box 55548
Sherman Oaks, CA
91413-0548

Over and above the mailing cost--just toss it in an envelope that won't tear--a single 44cent stamp should do it--let me know what I owe you.

Youse a good guy. I think I'll go to bed now.

Harlan

Unca Harlan: I have one (1) DC quarter. How do I get it to ya?

Chuck

Brian, I hear ya, and my reaction was much the same as yours, but I have faith that Cuse and Lindelof are up to a lot more than just a 'Good vs. Evil Showdown' story. They have always played fair up to now -- they publicly discuss plot points and drop hints without giving anything away, and one thing they tell us again and again is to not assume that anything on LOST is what it seems. In fact, just this evening Lindelof posted the following on Facebook: "In one week, the conversation is going to change." So, let's wait and see.

Nice to know I wasn't the only one reminded of the old _Twilight Zone_ episode. I didn't know it was Beaumont's.

But you know what's disappointing? Not that the creators of _Lost_ spent years telling the same story. It's that, after five years of setting up a very elaborate story with an equally elaborate backstory, they decide to resolve it _all_ by slicing away all of the richness and reducing it all to embroidery... and announcing that the real story, the core, was yet another Battle of Good and Evil.

(One thing I liked about _Babylon 5_ was that, while the story gradually built into a Good-and-Evil story, the characters _rejected_ being pawns of the Forces and determined to find their own path.)

Take a moment and think back on _Lost_. The first season dropped a lot of neat mysteries. Then we got the ruins of the Dharma Initiative, and its odd 60's-70's utopianism that was pretty original as far as TV drama went. By the fourth season the story was slipping its moorings as complications and reversals accrued-- how the Others took over the Dharma stuff, whatever Charles Whitmore's desires were, that kind of thing.

And even better, I loved how the show's structure of flashbacks became a structure of flash-forwards, and now, a structure of flashes to an alternate timeline. This was genuinely challenging. The intelligence behind it all told us that this was really ambitious storytelling, which meant that yes, there was a real story behind all of this. And its conclusion could be something really spectacular.

I'm still hoping. I'll watch the remaining episodes and hope for the best. I don't think I'll watch it again on home video, piecing together the Full Story with notes, timelines, and Skeleton Keys like a video version of _Ulysses_ or _Catch-22_. But I really hope they won't shove this wonderfully complicated clockwork under a big, clunky sheet labelled Good Versus Evil.

SHIT SHIT SHIT !!!!! WILL I NEVER LEARN????

After I posted my thoughts about Charles Beaumont's influence on the LOST creators, I remembered what a twenty-lane crack-up of calumny, coocoo and contempt this internet is. If someone CAN misinterpret, they will. Either out of maliciousness or stupidity, it only gets worse by the microsecond. As the great American aphorist Tony Isabella has said, "Hell hath no fury like that of the uninvolved." So.

Before the scuttlefish can unship their flukes, here this:

I have been, since episode #1, a fan of LOST, a booster of LOST, a klaxon of admiration for those who created LOST, and my preceding observations re LOST and "The Howling Man" shows I am still paying attention, and if some dwarf mentality takes it upon itself to twist ANY of that to infer, suggest, or otherwise attribute to me anything but good-will, use this as an explicit Go Back to the Common Cesspool, you boiled potato.

Yrs. respectfully, Harlan Ellison

Please forgive the second posting, but - Holy Crap! I just went looking to buy a copy of The Howling Man. The cheapest I could find it was over $40 at Amazon. Ebay has it ranging anywhere from $55 to $115. So yeah, I'll read it - but not just yet, thanks.

I will now lurk for a few days.

Harlan,

As surely as I thanked you 35 (or was it 40?) years ago for pointing your neon finger at Beaumont, today I express deepest gratitude for alerting me to Estleman.

He and Amos are quite the pair. Am amidst MOTOR CITY BLUE and smitten.

Thanks, man
Rick

RE: LOST
Huh. And here I thought it was "The Tempest".

I will go read "The Howling Man". Just as soon as I can find it.

Thanks, Harlan.

Holy crap, how you guys do make me go on interminably.

Ah, me.

All I sat down to do, s'help me, was to ask if anyone out there has one of those quarters, twenty-five cent pieces, the ones with the states on them, with

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

D.C.

on it. I have a very very tiny numismatic jones, nothing rare, nothing old or expensive, just a coin here or there, and I've collected 2 of each of the 50 state coins...twice...

So, if anybody wants to unload two

2

of the 51st coins--the D.C. ones only--I have no idea if this is a "collectable" for which anybody is gouging outrageously--I hope not, 'cause I'll just pass on this "amuse bouche"--if you'd get back to me here, I'd be grateful.

Honest, that's all I came in here to post. Harlan

DENNIS C. and THE GHOST OF CHARLES BEAUMONT
Thank you, Dennis. Jason and I spoke.

I wanted to tell him...and now you, and everyone else who comes here...

That last week, on the eighth-to-last episode of LOST, I finally got enough answers and information--after what? five years? six?--to figure it all out and to pass along to all of you (to do with as you will) that LOST has been, is, and after
marching around in circles forever, will ALWAYS be...

Charles Beaumont's short story, "The Howling Man."

Read it, go read it.

Don't just PRETEND you read it because you've seen it thirteen thousand times on re-runs of "The Twilight Zone" original episode WRITTEN BY Chuck Beaumont, go READ the story that Playboy rejected, that Charlie sent to me, that I published in Rogue magazine as by "C.B. Lovehill."

(I tug my forelock at the dollop of self-service there, but fuckit, folks, I was the first one after Charlie himself who knew this was one of the truly GREAT short stories of 20th Century literary brilliance. Gahdamn, it's as if it were a minute ago, not 1959 or '60, when I held that original manuscript in my hands and read it with disbelief, for the first time. Damn, Sam, it was a thunderbolt then, it remains so today. Just go READ it.)

And after decades and decades beyond Chuck's death, he is STILL, and this is what they mean by POSTERITY, chillun', he is STILL lighting the storytelling path for those who have come after...even if they puff themselves large as "innovators" when it has taken them Y E A R S to tell the same story Charles Beaumont did in something under 5000 words.

You will all go and chatter about this elsewhere. Be careful. There are a lot of crazy geek-boys&girls out there who will find the merest suggestion that Aesop, Shakespeare, Dickens, or Beaumont did it first, did it less ramblingly, did it better, than their current faves. They live not even in yesterday, today, or tomorrow. They live in a dot.com domain shrouded by the darkness of cultural amnesia.

You did it, Charlie! You got Posterity.

Yr. Pal, Harlan Ellison

ROGER GJOVIG and SANDRA ODELL HAGIN
I've had 3(count'em)3 laseric procedures for cataracts.

One had to be rectified. The other two...a cakewalk, spiffy, easypeezy.

The first one, I went to "one of the most outstanding eye surgeons in the world" at a prestigious university center "known for its macular degeneration expertise." The doctor was much taken with me--this was more than twenty ago--because he was (are you sitting down for this one?) a "huge fan" of my Star Trek episode.

He fuckin' DOTED on me
Only LUHHHHHHV-ed me!

(A small tip: NEVER let a specialist give you a simple shot in the arm. They haven't done it since first year med school, they don't remember how, and they'll make fine Irish lace of your flesh trying to find the vein. ALWAYS insist on the RN doing it. She knows how, she won't hurt you, she won't pincushion you, and she does about a hundred of them a day.)

(But I guess you all knew that already.)

Moving on...

He fucked me up royally.

No pain, not then. Later.

So I did more research, more fact-finding; not just a comment by a sweet blue-haired lady at a 4th of July barbeque at Huck and Carol Barkin's house three months before. Yes, I was a naif; yes, I know how profoundly easygoing and insufficient was my preparation; yes, I know you Can't Believe Everything You Read; and yes, it was my fault for not packing my braincase backpack with the correct data.

Nonetheless...

I did the hunt for what I needed to know, to rectify the surgery of this "world-renowned" specialist as my situation grew worse--have I never before spoken of this to you guys, hmmm, maybe not...anyhow: I found the Sinskey Eye Institute in Los Angeles (now, with Dr. Sinskey's retirement, the Assil Eye Institute).

Cakewalk. Twice. Once to rectify the right eye, and some years later, after maturation, the left. I have been going back to them over and over, for new prescriptions, for check-ups. Kerry Assil is a worthy inheritor of the Sinskey mantle.
(For reference: www.assileye.com -- and this is STRICTLY fyi, no recommendation beyond what I've written as MY personal experience. Kindly do not think I am giving out medical advice. It is a strange world, full of sweet little old blue-haired ladies at BBQs.)

Why do I tell both of you this?

I am not foolish enough to think the imminence of your assorted lasics is mollified by the story above. I do not pass it along, this fresh new 20-something-year-old information and memoir, lightly. I do it to drop upon you the freightload of caution that goes beyond all your friends clucking and assurances. Even if they've been down that path--and I tell you once more it is an EASY PROCEDURE TO FEAR NOT--they cannot make you as sure of who's doing what to you, than you can make yourself by

BEING DOGGED
BEING THOROUGH
BEING RELENTLESS
even BEING INTRUSIVELY DEMANDING

when deciding on to who (or is it to "whom") you're entrusting your vision. This is no idle post to say something as stupid and pointless as "been there, done that," or the like. This is the road sign fairy godmother erecting a 50-foot-high sign that says SLIPPERY WHEN WET, FOLKS! TAKE CARE! CAUTION! And, as always...

With concern and best wishes, Yr. Pal, Harlan

Silver Bullets My Ass!

Well, I confess that there have been movies I went to see because of the fanboy stuff. Most notably, of course, was The Howling, in which finding a scene that *didn't* have an in-joke was the trick. Wolf Chili. Ginsberg's"Howl." Lon Chaney Jr. poster. Somebody reading "You Can't Go Home Again".

Appearances by Forry Ackerman, Robert Burns -- art director on The Texas Chain Saw Massacre --and the world's foremost authority on Rondo Hatton --Roger Corman, digging for a dime in the phone booth, Dick Miller as the bookshop owner.

How many characters in the movie are named after werewolf movie directors? Or characters in other gory movies?

For the majority of viewers, none of this mattered, but as hardcore movie fanboy fodder? Jeez Louise, somebody shoulda *called* somebody ...

Perry

I LOVE the humility in the language:

Now, while seeking loopholes in the health reform bill, lawyers for the insurance companies basically declare, quite overtly, that they will seek to deny coverage of children with pre-existing conditions.

Not exactly the face of a Hallmark card!

CAMEOS
ATC,

Any thoughts on Stan Lee's cameos in movies with characters that in some cases he helped create?

--Grayson

The R-word
Onlooker: "Psychos like Sarah Palin should help take responsibility for lunatics who want to kill cops to protest the government"

I'm sorry -- did you just use the words "Sarah Palin" and "responsibility" in the same sentence??

BWAH-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HAAA!!!

Oh -- good one.

Seriously, though: Psychos like Sarah Palin are genetically incapable of taking responsibility for anything they say or do (see also Bush, George W.; Cheney, Richard; Rumsfeld, Donald). That's what makes them psychos. Also sociopaths.

Fanwank
Sorry, Ben, but the only reason to shoehorn Mr. Price into the '86 FLY would be as a tip of a hat acknowledging the previous film and, yes, that qualifies as a fanwank.

MR. POGUE & MR. CASTRO,

I'm not exactly in a big hurry to argue with TWO published and widely recognized writers who I respect and envy, but damn it, it's Vinnie the P. we're talking about.

No, I don't think a twenty-to-thirty-second appearance by Mr. Price would have deeply enhanced Cronenberg's THE FLY. Nor do I think such a cameo would have been mindless fanwank derailing the entire movie. Hell, I would have been happy with Price as a mysterious telephone call from Bartok Industries to Seth Brundle.

Does Price's absence make THE FLY '86 a lesser film? Absolutely not. But gosh-darn if such a moment would have made the flick just 0.02% cooler than it already is.

Boy, I had a cookie today. Mmm was it good. I got a bit of crumbles on myself, but all I had to do is brush it off.

Ah, guys, what I just wrote reminds me of the thrilling conversations we have been having lately on the Pav.

Let's juice it up a bit.

----------

But the cookie was good. Mmm.

Noted
Remember BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, George RR Martin's tv series about the attractive young district attorney (Linda Hamilton) who solves crimes with the help of the sewer-dwelling lion man (Ron Perlman)? If it was introduced to TV today, you would have to call it CLAW & ORDER.

Tony C. Smith’s Starship Sofa & The 15 Questions


For anyone interested in the back-story of Tony C. Smith’s 15 Questions that appeared a few days ago on the Pavilion, in the latest editorial (#127) of the Sofa’s ‘Aural Delights’ podcast (http://www.starshipsofa.com/), Tony talks about HE and how these questions came to be.

For those unfamiliar with what exactly a ‘podcast’ is, it’s like radio shows ‘broadcast’ on the Internet. There are numerous different formats including news, readings, literary analysis, personal journals or even all music podcasts. The popularity of podcasts seems to be increasing exponentially as the use of portable personal listening devices, like the iPod (the successor to Sony’s Walkman), become even more prevalent. Indeed, many podcasts can be directly downloaded onto such devices from sites like iTunes.

As an example, these are some of my personal favourites:

- Spider Robinson’s ‘Spider on the Web’ (http://www.spiderrobinson.com/podcast.html) posted once or twice a month with an alternating format of Spider reading a story one episode and the next featuring him playing a selection of wonderfully eclectic music;
- ‘Escape Pod’ (http://escapepod.org/) is a weekly podcast that features a new science fiction short story every week. It has two sister podcasts, ‘Pod Castle’ for fantasy and ‘Pseudo Pod’ for Horror;
- H.P. Podcraft (http://www.hppodcraft.com/) a weekly literary podcraft that examines a different H.P. Lovecraft story in chronological order each week and;
- Wil Wheaton’s Radio Free Burrito (http://radiofreeburrito.com/), Wil’s most excellent personal audio journal that features, well, whatever he’s into that particular week.

The Starship Sofa’s ‘Aural Delights’ bills itself as “The Audio Science Fiction Magazine’. On a weekly basis it provides a varying mixture of fiction (including short stories, flash fiction and poetry) and non-fiction (science articles, movies and book reviews, etc. - particularly recommended is an ongoing wonderful series of original articles on the history of the genre by Belmont University professor Amy H. Sturgis (http://eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com/).

Now, as the above are ‘free’ amateur productions (although they all solicit for donations), the ‘quality’ of these podcasts can vary enormously (and sometimes weekly), depending on personal taste. For example, although I personally find Tony’s 15 Questions feature to be almost unbearably hokey (even cringe-worthy at times), I do have to give him props for having the gumption to do it at all. As Tony relates, working up the nerve to cold-call such legends as Jack Vance, Robert Silverberg, Ray Bradbury and, yes, Harlan Ellison (Tony begins talking about HE about 19:37 minutes into the podcast), is something absolutely guaranteed to incur heart palpitations.

CALIFORNIA SORCERY
The dialog regarding Charles Beaumont has me pulling out and reading the above-mentioned anthology, containing Beaumont's "The Wages of Cynicism" and HE's "The Function of Dream Sleep" as well as some other intriguing titles.

I hear that Goofus from Highlights For Children magazine's Goofus and Gallant page ain't doin' so well lately. All that bad karma is coming back to him...

I enjoyed the 80s Fly, although I felt Cronenberg's Fangoria-passion for latex and ooze was overdone. Videodrome, anyone? For me, the 80s Fly was centered on Goldblum's performance, who played it as the writer intended, a man's descent into madness.

I was far more terrified by the original, which I think holds up as a horror-mystery very well. One of the burdens the remake had to bear was unlike the original, the theater audience already knew the guy was going to turn into a fly. So it made sense for the writer to scotch the mystery angle and focus on the man's thoughts and feelings.

Re: THE FLY
I stand corrected: I forgot Cronenberg did say that the aging commentary was his intention so at least I perceived that component correctly. Had nothing to do with disease/AIDS (every other film in the 80's was said to be a social comment on AIDS from FATAL ATTRACTION to THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS).

I just wish they hadn't dropped the ball with THE FLY 2. They had an opportunity to build an amazing mythology... shoulda been a mother-son story IMO with Geena Davis returning.

--

With every classic film nowadays being remade left and right unnecessarily, 1986's THE FLY is the perfect example of a remake that NEEDED to be produced.

I do enjoy the original and it was extremely faithful to the source material but I've never thought of it as science fiction, more horror fantasy.

And it still holds up. It's been said to be a commentary on disease, but I find the older I get, I get more out of watching it just from thinking more about aging and looking in the mirror and not seeing the youngin' I once was anymore, and the beauty of having a woman in your life who loves you despite your transforming state.

I so love that film.

Roger,

“I am a bit curious whether I'll look like a pirate wearing my black eye patch.”

Wow, I thought you would be more interested in how you look without an arm and a leg. Best of luck with the operations.

Harlan,
I managed to see most of “The Oscar” when TCM aired it on the day of the Oscars. For all of the bad press I enjoyed it. The movie seemed to me to have a lot in common with your book Spider Kiss. Specifically:
• The main character is an amoral son-of-a-bitch who is driven to climb the entertainment ladder. In the process he is willing to walk over anybody in his way, including those closest to him.
• The story is told from the point of view of his closest partner. The handler. What in today’s psycho-babble would be called an enabler.
• A large part of the story is told in past tense, remembering how things got to how they are now.

I think that what Spider Kiss did for (or to) the music industry The Oscar did for (or to) the movie industry.

A good day to all here.

Tony C Smith and StarshipSofa
Hey Tony,

I'm an infrequent visitor to your website, but I've enjoyed what I've seen and heard. If you have a moment, come on over to "the other side" and introduce yourself. I'm sure a few of us could point you to places where you could get some questions answered. We actually have an entire subforum dedicated to discussing Harlan's work in depth (the Spider forum), and to be honest, it would be great to have the input of a few more SF fans as well! Just an invitation...

Jason Brock
Harlan:
I have emailed and 'tweeted' Jason, so you should hear from him soon.

ROGER: As one who's cataracts are not yet "ripe" (I feel like I have mangoes growing on my face) and ready for removal, I hope your surgery goes well and you soon have your vision fully restored. Warm fuzzies, dust free, with goggles so you can safely be around them, headed your way!


shagin

DENNIS C. :

A small favor, if possible. Jason Brock sent me a 90 minute version of the Beaumont documentary. He and I spoke briefly via old-fashioned telephone. I wrote down his number on a PostIt, promising to call and tell him when I received it.

Then I put the PostIt where I would be ABSOLUTELY SURE to remember whence. Absolutely.

Uh.

Could you, please, if it's not too much an imposition, get the above request for a call to Jason or his website. He has the number.

Wearily, thenk you. Harlan

I'm sorry, Pogue, I had read the entry with more attention (and with enjoyment) last year and simply didn't pay proper attention this time when looking (in vain) for something of use to Ben. Your paragraphs are deceiving to the untrained eye; DOA didn't register as a movie title, that's all. My bad. Apologies for double-posting.

Roger, you will have my thoughts and prayers for your surgery. Be well.
Hi, Harlan and Susan and all. Hope you are well.
Love, Diane

Jan, the quote is right; the film to which it's applied is wrong.
Jan, I did go back to the blog I suspected was in question. You got the quote right but it was said about DOA, not THE FLY. The confusion might have been in a phrase that had a misspelled word. Transitioning to my positive experience on The FLY, I had a line "The same can't be said for DOA...") Unfortunately, in my dyslexic fashion I either had a typo or a misspelling and the phrase came out "the same CAN be said instead of "Can't".

Jan
I don't believe I said any such thing about The Fly being a horrible development process or being disappointed in the film. It sounds like something I might have said about other films of mine, but not that one. But even the phraseology of the quote doesn't sound like something I wrote and I'm pretty sure I didn't write on my blog site. I'm not inclined to go back and check.

I'm having eye surgery this Wednesday and next and having my cataracts removed. The right eye is so bad it currently is 250 on the 20/20 scale and with astigmatism also. It's costing me an arm and a leg because my insurance is very limited because of how they have me coded at work, but it will be wonderul having clearer vision to be able to read Harlan's work, and the other authors I read, much easier.I am a bit curious whether I'll look like a pirate wearing my black eye patch. but we shall see.

Ben, it seems to me that if you want to know about the choices Pogue made, you should re-watch The Fly. Better for you, better for Pogue.
He once wrote in his blog(*): "It is so linked to what was a horrible development process and a film I'm disappointed in, it hurts to revisit it. I've not seen it all the way through since its preview screening." - Don't poke the Pogue.

HARLAN: A fascinating list of items has arrived (thank you!) without any of the actual items. How could you guys forget? Please send *all* of them ASAP. It only took me one quick look to know that I need them. Use Super UPS Premium Express. I will evaluate the items for a year and send them back if I don't need them.

(*) Another blogger outed in front of Harlan, haha.

The new Bram Stoker Award winners
* Superior Achievement in a NOVEL - Audrey's Door by Sarah Langan (Harper)
* Superior Achievement in a FIRST NOVEL - Damnable by Hank Schwaeble (Jove)
* Superior Achievement in LONG FICTION - The Lucid Dreaming by Lisa Morton (Bad Moon Books)
* Superior Achievement in SHORT FICTION - “In the Porches of My Ears” by Norman Prentiss (POSTSCRIPTS #18)
* Superior Achievement in an ANTHOLOGY - He Is Legend edited by Christopher Conlon (Gauntlet Press)
* Superior Achievement in a COLLECTION - A Taste of Tenderloin by Gene O’Neill (Apex Book Company)
* Superior Achievement in NONFICTION - Writers Workshop of Horror by Michael Knost (Woodland Press)
* Superior Achievement in POETRY - Chimeric Machines by Lucy A. Snyder (Creative Guy Publishing)

Lifetime Achievement Awards (not very visible in the press release): Brian Lumley and William F. Nolan

Psychos like Sarah Palin should help take responsibility for lunatics who want to kill cops to protest the government:


http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/03/29/on-facebook-sarah-palin-mixes-gun-imagery-march-madness-in-exh/

This country is marching BACKWARDS intellectually.

THE FLY
With every classic film nowadays being remade left and right unnecessarily, 1986's THE FLY is the perfect example of a remake that NEEDED to be produced.

I do enjoy the original and it was extremely faithful to the source material but I've never thought of it as science fiction, more horror fantasy. So when I first heard about it in one of the media magazines (probably STARLOG), I felt remaking it as a true science fiction tale would be a fresh take on the story. I wanted to see something that dealt more realistically with the horrific ramifications of inventing something like that.

It's a tragic love story as well and I enjoyed those elements.

And it still holds up. It's been said to be a commentary on disease, but I find the older I get, I get more out of watching it just from thinking more about aging and looking in the mirror and not seeing the youngin' I once was anymore, and the beauty of having a woman in your life who loves you despite your transforming state.

The contributions of Charles Edward Pogue and then David Cronenberg combined to create a near-flawless screenplay.

Everything else - set design, casting, etc. - was perfect. In fact, Goldblum should have received an Oscar nom.

I so love that film. And does anyone else think of the pods when they open their microwave with the light still on and have to put their hand in to pull out a cup or plate? That freaks the shite out of me when I do that.

Entombing The Fly

I think Brad nailed it. Regardless of the film's strengths or flaws, the original THE FLY is perfectly enjoyable, thanks to its two leads.

*MOST sci fi flicks of the 1950's were "bad science".

*Vincent Price was there like a coat hanger simply because the producers wanted a name for box office draw. He was not essential to the plot; then, again, he reinforced the sense of kinship within Andre's family.

*Any flick that can make you accept the incredibly loony premise - especially with an oversize low-budget plastic headpiece - and still care about the character so much is doing a pretty good job at the drama. By no means is the original "as good as" or "better" than the remake; nevertheless, VOR raised some good points, and it's completely unnecessary to demean his enthusiasm for this character-driven flick. When Hedison is locked behind those doors while communicating with his wife...you DEFINITELY care! It gets you interested. That's more than you can generally say for the genre during that era.

*The sillier decisions made in the movie - for which Al (later David) Hedison himself famously tried to campaign improvements (in fact, the transformation concepts appearing in Cronenberg's version shared much with those Hedison pushed for in the original) - had nothing to do with James Clavell's script. Those were choices made by Kurt Neumann. The budget had lots to do with those choices.

In its sum, the original THE FLY is perfectly enjoyable.

Watched for the first time "Dreams With Sharp Teeth". Amazing! Made me realize how much I miss reading Ellison's work. (most on my bookshelves) I grew up reading Ellison, Sturgeon, etc. Thank you, Mr. Ellison, for being real. You make me want to be a better writer.
Pat

Loony Tunes
Nine nut job trailer park losers with rifles makes a vast right wing conspiracy?

This sort of thing has gone on in its modern iteration since the seventies (remember The Order?)

It's gone on in other forms since the 1860s. The 1820s. It's (sorry H. Rap) "As American as apple pie".

It's why we have laws against it, and police to enforce the laws.

I don't give a rats ass if the motives can be labelled fascist or Marxist or "Christian" or "Islamic" or Howdy Doody.

I care not what the motives are for crazy. All I need know is the crazy.

Once that is clear, the rest is just dressing on the fruit salad.


You know, Looney Tunes?

It's worth noting that the original version of THE FLY was greatly admired by the surrealists, who obviously saw the lack of 'scientific' logic as a plus rather than a minus. One of the things that makes THE FLY so memorable is its dream-like atmosphere. Indeed, the film's narrative makes perfect sense once you see it as the wife's nightmare, a nightmare which expresses her fears about the man she has married.

Da Thly
As my son used to mispronounce "The Fly ..." as a small boy.

Um, VOR, you're kidding, right? Yeah, that "Help me!| in the web was scary as hell when I saw it, but it was pretty much the only moment anybody remembers from that movie. Pogue's comment about it being bad science fiction is dead-on.

No science there.

Because something is a classic doesn't mean it is perfect, or even good. The Edsel is a classic. So is The Rocky Horror Picture Show. If you want to hold up an example of great car-making or movie-making, I expect those two don't top most lists.

Wasn't the Huston/Bogart version of The Maltese Falcon a remake?

It is ever so much scarier to somebody with a working brain to imagine slowly turning into a monster, or losing who they are than a sudden demise by spider.

"Flowers For Algernon?" Or anybody who has a relative in the depths of Alzheimer's?

I dunno if it's Pogue's line or it was added, but that "Be afraid. Be very afraid." sort of sums up the essence of Brundle's metamorphosis, and that's what the movie was all about. The acid fly-puke and shotgun stuff might have been over-the-top, but that's not what the movie was *about.*

Perry

Dick Giordano
I wrote about Dick for today's column:

http://www.worldfamouscomics.com/tony/back20100329.shtml

Here's an interesting meditation on the book trade and bookshops from a William S Burroughs website I sometimes write for; sure any book junkie here will appreciate and understand the sentiments expressed:

http://realitystudio.org/bibliographic-bunker/rare-books-how-a-filthy-habit-got-too-clean/

ATC: I would add that, in the case of the CAPE FEAR cameos, the roles in question were substantive and worked regardless of whether the viewer was aware of the earlier film or not. Gregory Peck's part in particular was a delightfully outrageous bit of acting that he clearly was enjoying. A case of the exception proving the rule.

Cameos
Pogue: THANK YOU!

Stopping the story so (for instance) Mel Gibson and Danny Glover can "recognize" each other from the Lethal Weapon movies in MAVERICK is a good way of reminding folks that they're watching a movie. (Also, that scene of Janet Leigh as a secretary driving the PSYCHO car in one of the sequels to HALLOWEEN. Ha, ha, ha. Way to go. Remind me of a better movie, so I resent yours. I hate that kind of hey-look-at-me cleverness.)

It's rare that this kind of scene works. I did kind of like Kevin McCarthy, still warning us all about the pods in the first remake of INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS. And, frankly, Robert Mitchum played a substantial role, not a cameo, in the remake of CAPE FEAR...I can forgive that. And then there's Marlon Brando in THE FRESHMAN, spoofing his previous turn as Don Corleone, but actually playing a different character, brilliantly. But note the difference between casting the prior actor in a substantial role, and having him add to the proceedings, and structuring an otherwise pointless scene around him so he can show up.

But for the most part, recognize-the-celebrity games like that are absolute poison to any film's effectiveness.

Harlan is a clinical writer. He opens up the body, jagged like, and waits for the rats to eat the insides. He saves the heart, puts it on a velvet, purple rug. He sends the heart in a heart shaped box to us the reader. We eat it up, uncooked.

Amen.

-----------

Nine "Christian" militia members were caught trying to kill cops and federal authorities. As I have said before, the crazy right is starting a jihadi war. Not the good jihad.

Be afraid.

Chag Pesach Sameach to fellow yids...
...and here's instructions for the Sedar:

http://www.slate.com/id/2248903/

Ben Winfield
Why have Vincent Price do a cameo? How does it serve the film? I don't see the value of doing cameos in a serious film. Why take people out of your story by referencing another film? It's a rather cheap and pointless exercise.

MAGGIE: I don't know what you went through as a child, or even growing up, but I hope the relief is a healthy one and brings with it a release from dark things.

***

Norwescon 33 is 3 days away, 2 if you count that we leave on Wednesday to set up hubby's dealer table. I am so damn proud of him!


shagin

MR. POGUE,

Thank you for the feedback. I guess I should have phrased my question more specifically; I was really trying to ask how you went about structuring the protagonist's metamorphosis step-by-step (deciding which physical aspect of his character would change first or last in chronological order to best serve the story, etc).

Anyhoo, I do agree the "fly-head" is irretrievably goofy, but damn if the cobweb sequence will always be the stuff of pure nightmare. I've always wanted to ask David Cronenberg why he never offered Vincent Price at least a cameo in the remake...

Ribtickler Penitent Pensman.
Why NEVER to write a Scientology movie:

http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/movies/penned_the_suckiest_movie_ever_sorry_MdXedZpTMWJmfpw80Xc7aO/0

On genres and things.

I suppose it matters less what they call him, than what he has produced.

But we must remember that some minds require categorization. They abhor what they cannot put into nice, tiny little packets. To them, Harlan Ellison, Ray Bradbury and Kurt Vonnegut are all "sci-fi" writers. They have probably not read anything the three of them have produced.

In the same breath, they would probably consign Hemingway to "adventure" stories, Twain to political humor, and Steinbeck to Depression novels (pun intended). THese are, of course, an element of the output, but nothing near the whole and compleat story.

We pat them on their heads, these categorical sorts, and give them one of Frank's cookies. We then move on, knowing they have missed the true richness of the legacies involved.
__________________________________________________

Side note: One of the things I have most admired in our esteemed patron is the fact -- evidenced through years of comment and action -- that while he (understandably) rejects the moniker of SF writer for himself, he loves the genre and the practitioners thereof.

All too often you read or hear of someone rejecting a label because they feel it demeans their work, or unfairly places it in a slum of some sort.

To my mind, and my ongoing admiration, Harlan demurs because it really just isn't accurate.
__________________________________________________

MAGGIE - Wow. Just, well, wow.

A recommedation or two
Ken Levine has a blog here: http://kenlevine.blogspot.com/ and he reprinted a memo David Mamet sent to his writing staff when he was involved with the TV show, "The Unit". Many of you know this stuff, however, I appreciate the clarity and sanity of the memo.

Also, (and I say this with the hope that the Pavilion will not break out in a series of posts that feature lists), watching "Human Target", which is based on the DC comic by Len Wein and Carmine Infantino, is not only be a nice way to spend a dramatic hour, it also features one of the best theme tunes (Bear McCreary) I've heard in the last ten or fifteen years.

Brian Phillips

DEAD
I got the call today. Your Dad is dead. I found out later my next words were almost exactly the same as the ones my brother said upon getting the news. The world is a safer better place with his absence. I wish he had done a single thing worthy of a different reaction. Relief. I was flooded with relief even at 58. He was one dangerous s o b. Even to the extent that on the streets of New York City as a runaway kid I never met anyone to equal him. Dead...It couldn't of happened to a nicer guy. maggie

--But the bad drama was a bigger concern. Because once you had the guy come out of the transformer with a big fly head, he had no facial expressions and no voice with which to convey his emotions or thoughts. He's reduced to scrawling on a chalk board. Pretty dramatically inert stuff.--

Please don't take offense at this Mr. Pogue, but you remade a classic, which was a classic for a reason. While I know there are many fans of your film on this board, what you call the "bad drama" of the original still manages to be pretty compelling...and in my opinion is superior to its remake.

To cite the most obvious example (and there are others): the spider-web ending of the original was miles ahead of the shotgun-gore of your remake in both tension and effectiveness as a closer to a tragedy. While I respect your right to remake films as part of your career as a writer, I'm not impressed with your critical panning of your source material.

Oops


In fairness to my new acquaintance, I should have edited his previous remarks, or included an excerpt from a subsequent email in which he added, on his own initiative:

"And I imagine that Mr. Ellison does not like to be called a science-fiction writer, but rather a writer. Therefore I am apologizing to you, to circumvent your sending him an email that says, 'I just heard from yet another asshole who called you a science-fiction writer.' "


Which also seems to relate in a most timely manner to what you were typing at roughly the same time south of here.

Ellison comments

One of my adventures this week involved reading some excerpts, on camera, from Edgar Lee Masters' 1915 classic, "Spoon River Anthology" at the local cable access channel station. A friend of the organizer swooped around the actors and technical crew, constantly shooting photos of us. Later I was told he had been nominated for an Oregon Book Award for a collection of photographs he had shot of the Iraq War, I tell you this only a preamble to some things he said to me later by email, which I thought might be pleasing to. . . .

HARLAN:

My new photographer friend wrote:

"Ellison is my favorite science fiction writer, and is the ONLY sci-fi writer (I know of) whose work, I believe, qualifies as serious literature.

"I heard him speak in San Francisco, around 1989, when I was in the Army (as a journalist) and was looking for people (without guns) to inspire me. He took questions from the audience (questions written on index cards, I think). One was, "Where do you get your ideas?"

"His answer was, 'From a warehouse in Peoria.' Or Dubuque. I forget which. I'll bet he's gotten tired of saying that. Probably, he's more tired of the question. I also bet he's now getting his ideas from Mexico, or India, due to NAFTA pushing the idea market overseas. I wrote a short story a couple of years ago about Batman's job getting outsourced to China. Three 12-year-olds in a shoe factory are given his uniform and told to perform his duties. (I'll bet Mr. Ellison would be impressed! How original! Oh, I forgot, they have ray guns. MUCH better.)"


Also, Harlan, apropos of your post earlier this evening, the other day I ran across a purported Oscar Wilde quotation that I had never seen before:

"BE YOURSELF. EVERYONE ELSE IS TAKEN."

What Favorite Authors Teach Me: Message From Moonbase Alpha
What I learnt today was something I learnt a great long time ago but requires occiasional reinforcement, since I too am an American Idiot occasionally too drunk on celebrity.

If you want to know an author, read their books. They were born, had childhoods, and will eventually die, just like everyone else.

Of course, some are just such interesting characters that a dozens of interviews, a movie, and a trail of video exist documenting them. But don't subsitute that for the reading.

You explore the words. Literature is supposed to change you. That's how it does it. I am, for instance, a different person for having read Hesse's "Magister Ludi".

On the subject of the SPACE:1999 short, "Message From Moonbase Alpha", I saw it once. I did have a crush on Zienia Merton when I was wathing it as a neat thing; who wouldn't? She reminded me of pixie-cut-sporting figure skaters, which was also very popular at the time.

While I enjoyed the production, and liked the way it tied the series' threads off in a deft, short production, I felt odd watching it ... the monologue tended toward corniness and a rather saccharine appeal to emotion. Good if done in appropriate doses. Way overdone there.

But I'd recommend it if only for the chance to see the Sandra Benes character (who to me was the gentle sould of Alpha's command staff) one more time, the dead-wonderful Main Mission set recreation, and the clever way they turned the whole S1999 story into a sort of Ouroboros … but I hope I did't give away too much there.

Beaumont docu
If anyone wants to contact the filmmaker behind the Charles Beaumont documentary, go to his site: www.Jasunni.com -- there's a 'contact' link on the lower right. I don't like posting someone's email for the world to see. His name is Jason V. Brock.

The Egyptian Theater and the American Cinematheque are also doing a film noir festival, starting next weekend with lots of wonderful and rare films like EXPERIMENT PERILOUS, THE LOCKET, SO EVIL MY LOVE, THE POWER OF THE WHISTLER and many more. It's always a great time -- seeing these pristine black-and-white films in beautiful 35mm... so if you're in LA, try to check some of them out (that way, they'll continue to do it every year).

www.americancinematheque.com

Mr. Winfield
I don't know how to answer your question. When approached to do the remake of THE FLY, I read the short story and saw the old Vinny Price movie, which was written by noted author James Clavell and was very faithful to the original short story.

While remembered fondly, the film, I was very quick to realize, was bad drama and bad science. Bad science because why, when the protagonist went through the transformer, does he come out with a big fly head and the fly a little human head?

But the bad drama was a bigger concern. Because once you had the guy come out of the transformer with a big fly head, he had no facial expressions and no voice with which to convey his emotions or thoughts. He's reduced to scrawling on a chalk board. Pretty dramatically inert stuff.

The story by default becomes about the wife's descent into madness as she tries to help her husband. In the 1958 film, the wife's descent into madness was pretty damned silly when she's runnning around in high heels and pearls, perfectly coiffed. And that shouldn't be the story. It's about a man losing his humanity...which, in many ways, is what all horror stories are about.

So it became pretty obvious, pretty fast we had to have gradual transformation.

Blame Mark Evanier for this...
Mahatma Gandhi walked barefoot, ate very little and never brushed his teeth so he was a super calloused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis...and happy Palm Sunday to all...

Harlan, enjoy life with a Taoist ease!

You no longer owe anyone retreads like "when are you going to write something new?", or the really, REALLY tired ones like, "Is Ellison considered a science fiction writer?"

WE can field the retreads FOR you!

I sound a little like an opportunist, but I'm just suggesting you can let the OLD stuff slide now. It's ALL on record.

The Sunday Funnies
I have great sympathy for people who cannot seem to go five minutes without having a political thought they must share.

I hold that sympathy for just a long as it takes to get away from them.

Is "Harlequin" optioned for film?

Along the same lines, has anyone ever adapted a Harlan Ellison story for the stage? "IHNMAMS" seems made to order for a minimalist sort of production.

I'd like to see a triptych of Kafka, Ellison and Borges on stage, each story as an act. Perhaps "In The Penal Colony", then "I Have No Mouth And Must Scream", closing with a portion of "A Universal History of Infamy".

Perhaps a final scene with a monologue.

"Of Exactitude in Science

...In that Empire, the craft of Cartography attained such Perfection that the Map of a Single province covered the space of an entire City, and the Map of the Empire itself an entire Province. In the course of Time, these Extensive maps were found somehow wanting, and so the College of Cartographers evolved a Map of the Empire that was of the same Scale as the Empire and that coincided with it point for point. Less attentive to the Study of Cartography, succeeding Generations came to judge a map of such Magnitude cumbersome, and, not without Irreverence, they abandoned it to the Rigours of sun and Rain. In the western Deserts, tattered Fragments of the Map are still to be found, Sheltering an occasional Beast or beggar; in the whole Nation, no other relic is left of the Discipline of Geography.

-A Universal History of Infamy- Jorge Luis Borges and Adolfo Bioy Casares

REPLY TO TONY SMITH
Yeah, well...

I fear I must disappoint you, kiddo.

I have answered each and every one of those questions, ad strangulatum, over and over, updated periodically, expanded upon, clarified, revised as I grew older and lived the more--because, as we know, "Wisdom come late, is wisdom nonetheless"--and I choose not to gild those lilies any further.

I do not intend even a distant echo of snippiness, yet I tell you that for me this overreach of questions easy to ask, answerable only by entire volumes ("tell me about your childhood")(ALL of it?)(or just the adventurous parts?)(do YOU not perceive what a time-thief burden you proffer, for no appreciable reward?) is less inveigling to me than terminal scaphism. You could look it up.

I am about to turn 76, I may or may not have a few more stories in me, but the energy wanes daily. Every answer you want, at length, cleverly set down, appears in one (or more) of my 76 books. As politely put as I can, I suggest this is merely a problem of doing your homework. If my answers, if my career, are worth ANYthing, then take them as they already exist. You, or my readers and friends, and many of the people right here, can direct you. But I assure you, all the answers are, well, to invent a fresh new trope, "out there."

To prove the equanimity of my reply here, and to blow away any smallest suspicion that I'm being dismissive, I WILL answer your first question in full:

You ask me: "Are you a science fiction writer?"

I reply, as I have (with few exceptions) since my earliest days:

No. I am NOT a "science fiction" writer.

I am a WRITER.

Who has written a substantial amount of work that OTHERS have called "science fiction." Some call it fantasy, some call it magic realism, some call it westerns, love stories, lyric essays, literary journalism, anecdote, memoir, parable, detective stories, action-adventure, even "junk."

I call it all Harlan Ellison Stuff.

There is a smart AmerIndian saying (which, surely, I will misquote) that avers, "It's not what you call me, it's what I name myself."

No, I am not a science fiction writer, any more than Agatha Christie was a "railroad writer." As well as I read and studied and enjoyed them, and even came to know and love them, my idols were never Asimov or Heinlein or Doc Smith. My icons ever were, are still, Poe and Kafka and Jorge Luis Borges.

Er...uh...you see what I mean, Tony? It just goes on and on. Simple questions, seemingly, but either I've answered them a million times, or you ask a question that might take a volume entire to codify. Such as "tell me about your childhood."

Respectfully, dear chap, piss off.

Harlan

MR. POGUE,

As a wet-behind-the-ears screenwriter who's currently struggling with a structure similar to that of THE FLY (a protagonist undergoes a metamorphosis of a METAphysical as well as physical nature), I'd like to ask your advice on how to properly devise a professional "transformation narrative", since THE FLY is widely considered to be the magnum opus in that particular subgenre.

How to create an appropriate sense of pathos and/or ignominy for the character's plight is a big hurdle for me too; one of my other favorite flicks dealing with this unusual subject is THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN (if you haven't seen it, do so as soon as you can).

Cheers, and by the way: DRAGONHEART was da bomb, yo.

Have had a wonderful Palm Sunday. Had my palm blessed. Don't laugh. Then I look at CNN:

"Israel to close off West Bank." Criminal states never cease to amaze me.

Imagine if Mexico closed off Texas? Don't laugh.

We may have to copter Cindy out.

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

Sarah Palin:

"We need to take OUR country back." Didn't know it only belonged to you and your Satanic wormwood kissers. This four-eyed bitch bugs me.

Will Shapiro (also the author of 'Robin Hodd: Men in Tights') has written a formal apology for penning the screenplay for L. Ron's 'Battlefield Earth.' It appeared publicly in the New York Post, and many people are finding it quite funny. Here is the link:

http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/movies/penned_the_suckiest_movie_ever_sorry_MdXedZpTMWJmfpw80Xc7aO/0

Scottish SF
Ian Aitken: Graham Rae seems to have sorted this out for you, but if there's a problem with this copy of "Shipbuilding", let me know at the e-mail address above. I had a story in the anthology and still know the folk involved, so I should be able to scare up a copy for you at a reasonable price.

On the subject of anthologies of Scottish SF, the first was "Starfield", edited by Duncan Lunan in 1989. "Shipbuilding" was intended as a contemporary snapshot of the scene and one thousand copies were printed for distribution at the first Scottish Worldcon in 1995. Ten years later, Worldcon returned to Glasgow and a follow-up to "Shipbuilding" was discussed. This evolved into "Nova Scotia: New Scottish Speculative Fiction", which I co-edited with Neil Williamson. Last year, Stuart Kelly, literary editor of "Scotland on Sunday", edited "Headshook: Contemporary Novelists and Poets Writing on Scotland's Future".

All these books will suggest to even the casual reader that the mainstream and SF (by which I mean speculative fiction, Mr Ellison's preferred term) are closer in Scotland than many other places. I was asked to put down some of my thoughts on the matter for the Books from Scotland website, and these can be found here:

http://www.booksfromscotland.com/Features/Articles-and-Essays/Between-Stark-Reality-and-Far-Fetched-Fantasy

Uncle Harlan, of course, has visited Scotland in both real life and his fiction. "She's a Young Thing and Cannot Leave Her Mother" is but one example.

Let My People Go
Harlan: We're cleaning out for Pesach today (as I'm sure you are, too) and found a stash of prune juice--ideal for letting my people go... Thought of you when I found the halavah, which you shlepped from LA to Long Island once because you didn't want to throw it out...

Fun photo

http://www.imdb.com/media/rm837193216/tt1531642

Ian Aitken - check your inbox for an email I sent you last night. I hope it didn't get caught in the spam filter. I found you a copy of Shipbuilding for under three quid from an online U.K. bookseller. Amazing what a swift, half-educated net search will throw up.

Hope you're feeling well, Harlan. I watched some fun interviews with you on Youtube yesterday; even saw some of the Webderlanders in a video. Since these interviews are up there, I would assume you don't regard them as being piracy, cos you're obviously normally really down on that sort of stuff. Is this a correct assumption to make? I guess you can't really regulate people sticking up stuff from TV broadcasts from decades ago, as some, though not all, of them were.

Beaumont Documentary
Dear Mr. Ellison et al.:

Dennis C.: Thanks for thinking of me. Glad to read you enjoyed the film. If you should think of it, yes, please, post that e-mail address.

I remember some time ago reading an essay by our Dear Host about the advice given to him by the late Charles Beaumont. (I won't repeat here.) Probably more true today than ever, but would like to hear it again.

I checked the websites of the upcoming film festivals scheduled to occur in Boston: no luck. I may have to order it, or rent it through Netflix.

Regards, and a fine Palm Sunday to all.

William Sherman
Boxford, MA

This evening was spent in the company of good friends and the YJ at a concert for a friend's band. Mind you, YJ has seen our friend solo and thinks the world of him, but this was his first time seeing the lush and lovelies that share the stage when they tour together. Add to that a few teen-something girls (15 years or so) getting their inner-goddess on dancing near the stage who didn't mind if YJ eager-teen-white-boy danced along. Or tried to.

He's 14. His eyes didn't know which bodies to follow, the ones dancing or the ones on stage.

I'm not ready for him to be a teenager, but I can say I was proud of how he comported himself and that he was as much a gentleman as a 14 year old can be. He was hyper at times, but respected boundaries and had a great time, as did the rest of us.

Support your local musician today!


shagin

Beaumont Documentary
Harlan got the biggest reaction during the screening of the Beaumont documentary, right near the end when he told the story of the two pieces of advice Beaumont gave him about writing scripts. I won't even attempt to paraphrase it -- I'm sure you can find it somewhere. Or perhaps Harlan will wish to re-tell it. It was fabulous.

I couldn't stick around for the Q&A (with George Clayton Johnson, Bill Nolan and the filmmaker, Jason Brock) so I couldn't ask if it will screen in Boston or elsewhere, but I do have Brock's email if anyone needs it. The movie is coming out on DVD.

Nolan and Johnson will be there tomorrow at the Egyptian for a screening of LOGAN'S RUN, if you're interested. I'm no fan of that movie, so I guess I'll pass. I'm sure the novel was better.

Norman Spinrad's newest offering HE WALKED AMONG US (Tor) is better than all the hype I *hope* Tor will dispense about it. I'm not through it yet but enjoying every page, every moment in Norman's grasp. I believe the book is out this week. Don't miss this one folks.

(Of interest: Harlan gets a walk on).

I met Dick Giordano as an art student. He was kind and friendly and not only loved comics but also loved talking with and teaching people who loved comics. Just a gem of a man.

Without him, there would have been no WATCHMEN, no RONIN, no DARK KNIGHT.

The world con book

A few years ago (15 as it happens) I attended my first worldcon. It was the 1995 one in Glasgow. They gave out a very good collection of short stories called Shipbuilding. The reason for this being that Glasgow was at one time world famous for the quality of our ships. All the stories in it were by Glasgow or Scottish authors and.... christ they were good.

I did something very dumb with my copy. I gave it to a friend (as you do) and of course lost contact with them. Probably due to me moving from Glasgow to Dumfries but mostly due to me not being very good about hassling people to hurry up and read that frakking book I loaned them.

These things are gems. I didnt realise what I had til it was gone, dumb train driver that I am, and I miss it. Perhaps one day on ABEBooks in the Uk I'll find a copy, or perhaps on ebay, but gawd I hope that I can find one. And no, I will not hassle my old friend for it back.... Nor will I hassle her for my UK first of Shatterday back (because I bought another actually) simply because these things are not done. Friendship is worth more than the mere printed page, no matter how good, and one day it will return as a boomerang to my hands.

Though, having said that, if anyone here attended Intersection Glasgow in '95 and has a spare copy, i'd love to buy/borrow/shamelessly purloin (delete as applicable) a copy from you....

SPACE: 1999
Steve Barber, I hear ya about Zienia Merton - beautiful then and now. Just recently saw her briefly in an episode of THE SARAH JANE ADVENTURES.

RE: ARCHITECTS OF FEAR
Pogue, sorry if I offended you in any way. I love THE FLY. It was something I always wondered about all these years and thanks for finally giving me an answer. Again, my apologies if I implied anything other than just my young self seeing similarities in two things I admire, as one like myself is ought to do when they've ingested so many films, books, and stories.

Souvenir Book for the First WorldCon at ABEBooks
Here's something you don't see every day, mostly because WorldCon I had, as I understand only 200 attendees ... a souvenir program book.

The text seems to imply that it was signed by Ray Bradbury himself.

The seller wants about $760 for it.

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=1706009635&searchurl=an%3DWORLD-CON%2BWORLD%2BSCIENCE%2BFICTION%2BCONVENTION%2BBradbury%252C%2BRay

Just thought it was interesting. Wish I could get just one look inside THAT one.

Dick Giordano
My world and the world of comics are lessened by the passing of Dick Giordano. He was one of the truly good guys in comics, a creator whose work excited me on countless occasions, a guy who inspired me, a mentor of sorts, and a dear, dear friend.

When Dick Giordano left DC Comics, I told people the company was losing its heart. He treated people fairly because it was the right thing to do and not for business reasons. I wish I had had more opportunities to work with him. But I'm glad for the shared moments I did have with him.

When I was a year or two out of high school, we exchanged a few letters and phone calls. When I came to New York for a comics convention, he took me out to breakfast and gave me some great insights into the business I wanted to enter.

I almost went to work for him and Bob Layton at Future Comics, which was a neat little company that deserved a long life than it ended up having, but my own life was too chaotic for me to accept their offer. I regret that now, if only because I would have that many more moments with Dick.

This has hit me hard. I need to write about Dick for my Monday edition of TONY'S ONLINE TIPS, but then I think I need to take some time off to think about my next projects. I feel like I should do something special to honor my friend. He's still an inspiration to me.

Tony

Dick Giordano
I met him once, a couple of years ago, by breaking into an autograph line teeming with collectors who had (each) brought hundreds of his comics to sign. (They were kind enough to let me butt in, as I was not interested in obtaining his autograph on anything, just talking to him for a minute or two; I note that I watched the line after I left and precious few fans actually talked to him, they just handed him the piles. At he moment it struck me as an instructive illustration in the difference between folks who loved the work, and those who merely collected it.)

I told Giordano that I had loved his work for decades, that he had helped form the imagination that has built my own career, and that I credited him with drawing what may have been the best Batman story ever told. He said, "Which one?" and then, when it took me a second to summon the title, answered his own question, "There Is No Hope In Crime Alley." (It's actually one of ten or so equally valid candidates for that lofty position in the canon, but really -- anybody compiling the best Batman tales could not ignore that one.)

Giordano struck me as a kind, soft-spoken gentleman, still a pleased and surprised by the encounter as he must have been the first time a fan expressed appreciation for his work.

HARLAN -

Your mailing arrived today in Virginia - thankee sai. It's been tucked away over there (points to the Shelf of Interesting Things) for safe-keeping and future reference.

If you've any interest, I can provide a couple of additions - just whistle.

Dick Giordano R.I.P.

Damn!

Multiple sources are reporting that long-time comic-book artist/inker/editor/editor-in-chief/legend and wonderful human being Dick Giordano died this morning. Even though the reports are all second-hand, and as much as I'd like to learn that the second-hand reports are untrue, they're coming from too many different sources for that to be likely.

I knew Dick couldn't attend MegaCon this year because of illness but was told he was responding to some new medication. It is unfortunate that this didn't turn out to be the case.

Dick Giordano 1932-2010.

It's not that he will be missed; he's missed already.

Mr. Pogue -
THE ARCHITECTS OF FEAR is posted (legally) at Hulu.com and may be viewed online. A terrific episode (perhaps the *third* best OL ep. from the original series).

http://tinyurl.com/ydb79nr

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

SPACE:1999 fans - I do not know if many of you saw it, but there is a fan-produced (and legal) wrap up to the series. It was done for the Breakaway Convention in LA on Sept 13, 1999.

It stars Zienia Merton, who is probably one of the primary reasons I grew up with a thing for women with short hair.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UJu0_NSt8Y

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

KRISTIAN
Your essay hits home in a particularly strong way with me. For 25 years I have been in the corporate world, feeling as trapped as you were many, many times. For me there is a steady balancing act between where my heart lies and funding so many of our favorite activities. There are financial obligations we have taken on that simply require that I make enough money to pay them. No way around that. In addition, by choice, we spend a lot on things for the house and travel. Again, we do it because we enjoy it.

I have a personal philosophy, which I have shared with my boss and the area director -- maybe not to the pleasure of the director, but that is another story. The philosophy is: I work to pay for my life outside the office.

I was once the corporate ladder-climber, and had made my way into a regional slot responsible for the California team of highly trained consultants. That was before Bernie Ebbers. Again, a story for another time. But it taught me that the company is not my life.

In my current role I am, and this is stated using the evidence that I am IN this position, one of perhaps the six top consultants in my area of specialization in Southern California. I am the ONLY one on staff for my company in SoCal, one of the two top providers. Regardless, we (the field employees of the company) are being subjected to a tremendous amount of pressure from our upper management, who seem to have missed the recession which is occurring all around us. My manager, who I like a lot, may soon become victim to that pressure, as may two other members of our team.

All of which is my long-winded way of thanking you for your essay, and humbly directing you to my own, entitled "The Bohemian Hedonist. Or: How this respectable corporate guy acts on weekends."

www.barbergallery.net

Thank you for stating what many of us feel, and yet few of us have the opportunity -- or the cajones -- to do ourselves.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Oddly enough, in the middle of all this corporate bullmalarky, we watched UP IN THE AIR last night. Great film, with a terrific performance by the three principles. I gather, I think, that people who have been ground up by the corporate monster will enjoy it the most (even if portions of it hurt).

Mr. Seward
I can't speak for Mr. Cronenberg who re-wrote me, but as one of the writers on THE FLY, who mapped out the metamorphosis of the protagonist, I can tell you I never saw ARCHITECTS OF FEAR with Mr. Culp and don't know what you're talking about.

As Seth Brundle's metamorphosis pretty much followed the same course in my script as it did in Mr. Cronenberg's rewrite, I have my doubts that he was influenced by it either.

ARCHITECTS OF FEAR
Ben, I'm happy you mentioned Cronenberg's THE FLY because I immediately thought upon seeing it in the theater that it was influenced by ARCHITECTS. Anyone watch those back-to-back and tell me you don't see it, too...

Don Hilliard:

If it's any consolation, I DID like the PILOT for Space:1999.

I liked UFO a lot.

Ben,

Culp was astonishing in ARCHITECTS OF FEAR!

I liked him equally in CORPUS EARTHLING.

***For someone here earlier, the title is DEMON WITH A GLASS HAND , as opposed to DEMON WITH THE GLASS HAND.

Only pointing it out, because even an article - definite versus indefinite - actually changes the meaning (AND therefore the feel).

****I now feel a cautious but distinct pride in President Obama and Nancy Pelosi. I hope this week is an awakening. (that applies to the House, too)

Kristian Bland
That was a great post last night - and welcome to the great big wonderful world of professional writing/journalism/content production/whatever they're calling it this week. Ah, me, I remember my first job in the field (he said, settling his arthritic bones into his favorite front-porch rocker) - the hours and the workload were lousy, but on the other hand, the pay was terrible. Things are much different today, of course; now the hours and workload are terrible and the pay is lousy. And let's not forget that the entire field is in the process of imploding. Welcome!

Okay, serious now. I think it's great that you're following your bliss, to use Joseph Campbell's overused phrase. I've always tried to do that - the only non-journalism job I've ever had was a summer job in a department store's menswear section - but I don't know if I would have had the nerve to keep pursuing my desire to be a writer if I'd had a family to support at the time.

Because it's not an easy field at the best of times. I had two periods of unemployment in my youth, and it took me a long time to get to whatever measure of success I am fortunate enough to enjoy today. And as I'm sure you know, this is an especially tricky time to be a writer for any publication of any size anywhere; they're slashing jobs and/or going under right and left.

But talent and persistence do count for a lot, and you appear to have both. You'll do fine.

I don't have a similar story of a grand, life-changing revelation that I found in one of our esteemed host's works; for me it was more general. I came of age in the late 70s and early 80s - when our society had just begun to sink into the slough of despond that continues to this day - and it always cheered me to read Harlan's work and to know that at least one person out there still clung to his principles and fought to hold back the tidal waves of mediocrity and venality that seem ever on the verge of engulfing us. Not for the first time, Harlan, I thank you.

Rob: A clarification and expansion to your SPACE: 1999 story that I think is worth mentioning:

I did like the show, and still do - at least well enough to have bought the DVDs a few years ago. One of them has commentary by Sylvia Anderson, Gerry's then-wife and co-producer on the first season of the series.

As she tells it, Robert Culp was her first choice for the lead role; she didn't know him, but was impressed as all hell by his work that she'd seen. (Her comments have no unkind words for Martin Landau, but make very clear that his ultimate casting in the lead role, partnered with Barbara Bain, was by executive fiat from the New York offices of Lew Grade's Incorporated Television Company - and that it wasn't dictated by cost. SPACE: 1999 was the most expensive TV series ever made at that point, as budgeted let alone in final costs, and a not-insignificant chunk of that dosh was earmarked for the salary and upkeep of their US stars.)

But prior to that head-office decision, ITC flew her and Gerry to Hollywood to cast the leads. By the Andersons' request, Culp was one of the actors invited to meet with them at the Beverly Hills hotel where casting meetings were being held poolside.

As Ms. Anderson describes it, Culp introduced himself with (not verbatim but close), "I'm a terrific actor, I'm a damn good director and I'm a fantastic writer."

She came back with a sour "And becomingly modest, may I add," no little put off...but carried on with the audition. And after two hours of conversation and reading with Culp, she was more convinced than ever that she wanted him in the role...because brash as his introduction had been, he'd shown her by the end of those two hours that it was no less than the truth.

Somehow, based on Harlan's comments, I don't think she exaggerated in any part of that.

reply to Tony C Smith
in order:
yes, and more.
I had one. Much like Mark Twain, if you want to know about me read my work, it's all in there.
I choose to get paid, and that's what they were buying that day.
Robert Heinlein.
The Book of Job.
There are no questions I could ask a SF writer.
See above about getting paid.
Defining interesting characters who have hearts as well as minds.
bwah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!
I have a day job, wife, and kids. It's really kinda boring.
(purged)
What's the strangest thing you've ever done while researching?
yes
hopefully, it gives the reader an interest in science.
yes
of course!

and thanks for asking.

Honestly, Robert Culp left a better impression on me in another OUTER LIMITS episode, THE ARCHITECTS OF FEAR. His performance as a man undergoing a traumatic metamorphosis, both on a physical and psychological level, is second only to Jeff Goldblum's Seth Brundle in THE FLY. (Although I'm inclined to think it's more of a tie.)

Questions you might answer after our phone conversation
Hello Mr Ellison,

Many thanks for taking my phone call the other day. It was so appreciated, and for offering to at least have a look at the questions - thank you.

Below are the questions I spoke about. They are just simple basic questions you might have been asked many times, the experiment is to see the different answers, writers' can come up with... Please feel free to answer them with one word or a hundred - its entirely up to you.

Are you a science fiction writer?

Tell me about your childhood?

How did you get stared in the SF genre?

Which single SF writer most influenced your own style?

Which book by another author do you wish you had written?

What would be the one question you could ask a SF writer?

For what reason do you write SF in preference to other classes of literature?

What one aspect of science fiction writing is the most difficult?

Does it get any easier?

Describe your daily working day?

What's the strangest thing you've ever done while researching?

Do you think that SF as a genre is different from other genres?

What do you consider the chief value of SF?

Has science fiction ever disappointed you?

Is there still new ground to be covered in SF literature?


It goes without say I will be delighted to send you a copy of the book when it comes out.

And thank you so much for permission to play the Langdon Jones story.

As Ever,
Tony C Smith

Westercon
I'm planning to be there. It's in Pasadena,CA this July.

Perhaps we could arrange a small, informal Webderland gathering? I might have a suite available for such in private, with catering proviided by a professional caterer friend.

Or a restaurant would be fine.

Just wondering.

Our Esteemed Host would be welcome, of course, though he is not much for conventions of late, and understandably so.

Charles Beaumont Documentary
Dear Mr. Ellison et al.:

There will occur a screening tomorrow of a documentary on the late Charles Beaumont, nee Leroy Nutt? Wow. So cool.

I remember, while at MIT, reading an anthology of his short stories, the title of which eludes me at the moment; also, I watched with awe all episodes of "The Twilight Zone" that he authored. "Perchance to Dream" struck me the most. As a forty-four-year-old, may I say with authority that he died far too young.

If any attending would be so kind, if you think of it, might you discover whether or not the producers intend to screen the movie in the Boston area? Then, please post the answer. If so, I hope not to miss it, unlike my missing "Dreams With Sharp Teeth" two years ago when it screened once in Boston during the annual Boston Film Festival. If not, must wait for The Documentary Channel or ordering on-line.

Regards while regretting living a continent away from the film capital of the world (for viewership),

William Sherman
Boxford, MA

Sorry
Sorry - I was ignorantly unaware of the circumstances and meant no disrespect in my post.

Ummmm
Gently: I know the comment was meant in kindness, but somehow I don't think it's a favor to the host or an honor to Mr. Culp's memory to helpfully suggest that people go watch "Demon With a Glass Hand" on Youtube.

Robert Culp
My condolences. My favorite Robert Culp movie is "The Great Scout & Cathouse Thursday". The fight between him and Lee Marvin always cracks me up. If you're looking to watch "Demon With the Glass Hand" it's on youtube.

Harlan, I would bet that you have read Molly Ivins. She about sums up Texas pretty good.

Space between houses equals space between the ears, who's to know.

Robert Culp
A while back there were a few posts about Rod Taylor and I mention a little comedy he was in with Jane Fonda called SUNDAY IN NEW YORK. A pleasant enough little piece. Robert Culp is Jane's current boyfriend in the movie-the one we know is going to be history by the end. Giving a good performance is never easy but given a script by Harlan or Kneale or Chayefsky or Serling at least gets you on a start down the road. But look at Culp in SUNDAY in a throwaway part and see how he doesn't make a false move. That, boys and girls, is an actor. Harlan and Susan, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry...

Beaumont Documentary
Just a reminder for those in the LA area that the documentary on Charles Beaumont (in which Harlan appears) screens tomorrow at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood at 3pm.
Anyone who wants to grab a coffee or something beforehand, email me...

CINDY: Fingers and toes crossed for Paris's appointment, and that she won't need surgery.

***

BRIAN PHILLIPS: You left your puns on my lawn again last night.


shagin

I was born yesterday.
I had heard about an Outer Limits Episode, "Demon With A Glass Hand", but never seen it.

In sixth grade we had one television, black and white of course. Only the doctor up the street could afford color. Well, him and the city councilman (later mayor) across the street. Even then it paid to be in politics.

Outer Limits was a Saturday night show that, in our house, only I was a fan of. I saw a lot of westerns and variety shows Saturdays, and usually had to make do with Monday lunch time re-enactments of the latest Outer Limits episode by Ken Merriman if lucky (he read Tom Swift and Andre Norton, and understood all the SFnal tropes, so I didn't usually need to interrupt and figure out what was really going on in some SF way in someinchoate recital of plot points proffered by a less Hip To The SF Vibe darfsteller such as my buddy Maurice Nelson. Though Maurice was a better mime than Ken, able to embellish the retelling with comic book imagery garnered from the enormous stash of read-to-pieces DC comics kept in a cardboard box beneath his bunk bed.

Since Maurice also had all the Beatles albums, and could talk like Paul McCartney, it was important I maintain this connection with cool, even at the not insubstantial cost of occasionally letting him be the one to tell the tale of the latest Outer Limits. "These ways of The Nerd are deep, and follow a crooked path, grasshopper."

But I never even got this much of Demon.

Over the years, I somehow conflated, from hints of bits and pieces here and there, Demon with another Outer Limits with Martin Landau as time traveler.

One Saturday in the early eighties, having dropped by a friends to hang out, the TV on in the corner as we played cards, I heard something.

"I was born ten days ago. A full grown man, born ten days ago."

I look at the tv. Robert Culp?

"What is this?"

"An old Outer LImits, I think?"

I see the credits.

What? Harlan Ellison? Wait a moment, is it... It is!

No Way.

Then came the first scene with the hand speaking to Trent of Destiny.

I still remember virtually each moment of that overcast, cool early fall afternoon hour, each unfolding scene as the character of Trent is peeled away, revealing as with a Russian Doll, each nested inner layer revealing in turn another hidden doll, his secrets.

"Let them kill you."

The beauty, the cold, crisp clarity of Robert Culp's performance of that sharp teleplay, the noirish production, the Bradbury building, the incredible crackling tension in the actions of Culp As Trent remains alive.

Art has the potential, from time to time realized, to capture a moment, to allow us to hold it in our own infinite now, to study it, see it, know it.

Like the bee on a flower in vase as painted by an old master, seen in 1968 which I recall in all its perfection, so with Robert Cilp and Demon With A Glass Hand.

To have created one such moment is to have bought a small piece of the eternal.

It's all any of us might hope for.

To climb the mountain of glass, to stand a moment in the light, before night falls about you.

RIP Robert Culp





My a

Robert Culp, writer
Mr. Culp's "Home to Judgement" is generally considered the best I SPY ever. "The Tiger," "So Long, Patrick Henry," "Magic Mirror," "The War Lord," and Mr. Culp's others are also well above average for that series.

I JUST now read your question, Harlan... about Texas.

I am delighted you asked... and proud that you asked me.

One of my major shortcomings is-- it takes me a while to be brief.

I have to take Paris to one more specialist in Austin tomorrow morning and if that goes as I think it will-- she won't need surgery and I'll be free to focus on your wonderful question about Texas and Rick Perry.

That said, I'll be back!
Your friend,
Cindy

J-U-U-U-ST Thinkin'

"BOB CULP...urbane, witty, sardonic, gracious, smart, generous, good host, marvelous raconteur."

No matter WHERE he appeared, you could quickly read all those in Culp!

I knew about Culp as a writer about as long as I'd known him as an actor, largely because Bill Cosby - whom I just about idolized when I was a really young kid - commented often about his days with Culp and I SPY. You can't improvise like THEY did without being a good writer.

I never liked the show, but Gerry Anderson originally approached Culp for the starring role in SPACE:1999. Culp would have written and starred, but his price was too high and they moved on to Martin Landau. (As it turned out, I think they could have USED Culp's writing skills!)

I read about THAT before I ever saw I SPY reruns on local stations.

Also, Culp did THREE great episodes in the original Columbo; he and Falk were like a ballet, the way they played off each other.

Anyway, I could go on and on. Culp was a really funny, clever guy!

**A question to those who were around back in 1965 when Medicare was passed:

Did the sort of looney-assed, hyper-paranoid violence break out as it has over the last few days over this new bill?

Many of us are now acquainted with Reagan's "fear" rhetoric back then, alerting America that Medicare would doom America to a Socialist tyranny, but this time round we had paid media to do that job - virtually up to, "go for your firearms", courtesy of Palin and Beck.

WAS it THIS volatile back then?

***Anyone here the hysterical "Teabag" lady on Rep. Bart Stupak's voice mail today?

"There are millions of people across the country who wish you ill...I LOVE my insurance company...if you come between me and my doctor..."

We're talkin' PALEOLITHIC here, man!!

Ignorance begets violence!!

****I was just musing today over how much waste often goes to wars. People will rally behind their leaders, trusting the campaigns about the cause for a war, only to find that the predicated outcome had the soundness of a soap bubble.

We know Iraq's fiasco.

Just know I'm thinking about Vietnam, having returned to reading about it:

The U.S. went to 'Nam on an ideological argument. If we didn't stop the North from taking over that niche of a region, America would be losing the war against Communism. We MUST demonstrate to Russia that Communism will not be permitted to spread!

We lost the war. We left.

We never did see that hammer & sickle sweep the globe as the paranoid rhetoric of that day conjured!

Nothing happened.

That means some 52,000 American soldiers were killed for nothing. And 7 MILLION Vietnamese were killed, mostly at our own hands.

What a horrendous, pointless waste.

Never mind this bullshit about "dying for your country" (a banner used to manipulate people like cattle!). To die for a LIE...shit! Who needs to spell it out?

Sadly, most people - pretty much everywhere - are calcified. They don't read up on history or empirical data, but rely on rhetoric of those they decide to trust.

Speaking for myself, when these questions hit me I need to dig into the facts. Then I get a conscience where I may not have had one before. You see, it IS possible to find answers without relying on rhetoric. Epiphanies can come through ones independent efforts.

FOR HARLAN
I'm afraid this is going to be a long one, but it's important. Leastways, I think it is. Your mileage may vary...

I've spent the evening poking sticks of reason into the eyes of excessively political Facebook friends to the point of ultimate boredom and suffering, mostly as a means to numb the unsettling thoughts chittering away in my braincase, telling me that I may have made a huge mistake. Waiting a week to start my new job wasn't the best of ideas, because I've found myself sitting around the house feeling unemployed and useless, and worrying about when my next check's coming in. Still, I hold on to my work ethic and I struggle through it, knowing that finally jumping headfirst into the murky waters of professional writing is the best thing I could ever do.

And I wanted to say thank you, Harlan. Thank you for writing, some moons back, a little diddy called "Why I Fantasize About Using An AK-47 On Teenagers" - it has been a thorn in my side for years, slowly bleeding me dry even as I tried to ignore it.

Sixteen years ago, I settled into a full time career I never wanted and learned firsthand what I'd read about years before in your essay when you discussed the hideous practice of featherbedding. But, I ignored it. I stayed at the desk when you got up, and I continued furiously emptying my Inbox for a decade and a half.

I had opportunities to start writing, and I remembered your encounter in the barbershop. But, I ignored it. I convinced myself that the bills I had were too great and my obligations too many to take the plunge and risk security for whatever was on the other side of the rainbow. I was an idiot.

Still, waiting this long to take the plunge has its advantages, however slight. As the unfortunate experience of my first marriage was coming to a close, I sat myself down at a keyboard again for the first time in a long time, and I started typing the demons out, exorcising each miserable bastard with every punch of the keys. It felt good, and it eventually earned me a starting salary well beyond anything I could have expected sixteen years earlier - but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Back in the early days of my return to keyfucking life into a story, I was a bit of a mess. My command of the craft had withered on the vine, and it took time and effort to nourish back to health. So I worked at it a little while, conjuring up long neglected skills while rekindling my love of the written word and, before long, I brought myself back up to speed. During those strange and lonely days following my divorce, I was meeting more than a few women and pouring into them all my years of hate and loathing until I finally wised up and stopped being a behemothic jerk. However, one of their number stuck with me. She endured my foolishness and comforted my heartache, and I found myself slowly slipping into love again. Around this time, new offers and opportunities to write began to trickle in once more, but by then I was again a husband and, instantly, a father to a three-year-old muse in the shape of a stepson. So, I ignored them.

Until, that is, the organization for which I'd toiled so laboriously for sixteen years decided to do a little bookkeeping magic and erase entire swaths of years worth of paid time I'd accumulated through over-performing and refusing to featherbed. It was a terrible blow to my pride, my sense of justice, and my belief in what I was doing and for whom I was doing it. Later that afternoon, after running the past sixteen years through my head and coming up short on all counts, I sent a reply to the most recent inquiry, and found myself in a meeting the next day. A few weeks later, and I was offered the job.

And now, the point of the story:

I quickly ran through my usual list of frightened timidity and, just when I was about to pass on yet another golden opportunity for the sake of avoiding risk and continuing to labor for the financial security of my family, I walked to the shelves lining my study, ran my finger along bookspines and dustcovers, removed Edgeworks 3 and flipped to page 164:

----
I was talking to Manny, who was my barber at the time, about being on the road, about moving fast and experiencing life and taking great chunks out of the years so one didn't die unmourned and unmoved by the universe.
Beside me, in the next chair, was a kid of about seventeen, also getting his hair styled. His eyes were big and round as he listened to me bullshit.
Finally, he said, "Boy! That's the way _I_ ant to live!"
And a surge of joy leaped in my chest. Not _all_ kids were apathetic, deadass leeches. There were still kids like _this_ one willing to risk, willing to go the distance. I grinned at him, and he finished his remark...
"Yeah, just give me my old man's Corvette, those credit cards, and I'll go!"
At that moment, I died a little death.
----

I sat very still for a moment, feeling the thorn twist in my side and worrying about all my lost years, then I slammed the book shut. I got up, walked to the other room, grabbed my phone and dialed. "I'll take the job."

The thorn dissolved. Your little death in that expensive barbershop is, in some small way, has been avenged. I was guilty of killing you myself for years, and for that I apologize. However, I'm writing this now to let you know that at least one mixed up kid finally got the message and decided to take the risk. It just took him sixteen years longer than it should have, but thirty-five isn't too late. It's never too late.

So thank you, Harlan. Thank you for writing something that haunted me, tortured me, and eventually beat me into a bloody puddle of emotional viscera before I finally gave in and yielded to your wisdom. I owe you one, and I won't ever forget that.

-Kristian

I'm sorry that you lost your friend. He seemed like the coolest guy in the world...from what I could tell as a kid in Texas.

Cindy

And Now For Something Completely Different
A touch of southern whimsy, my story "Going To The Chapel" on The Drabblecast. Download it as an MP3 for free.


http://web.me.com/normsherman/Site/Podcast/Podcast.html


shagin

Harlan

Sorry about the sad times, man.

peace be upon us,
Rick

Robert Culp - an amazing presence. I think many had a feel about him: concise, witty, sharp. He radiated that. Tonight, DEMON WITH A GLASS HAND, and an I SPY episode. I appreciated his comedic touch in NATIONAL LAMPOON'S MOVIE MADNESS. (That 3-part feature concluding with Robby Benson and Richard Widmark). Thanks for the reminder of Mr. Culp sparing with Peter Falk in COLUMBO. Robert Culp, an all-around great man, certainly apart from the crowd. He will be missed.

I didn't know that Robert Culp was a writer...wow.

It's sad that I'll never get the opportunity to talk with him like you did, Harlan. Would have liked to have met him...My condolences...the world's a little emptier without talent like his.

Thank You, Mr. Ellison
Dear Mr. Ellison:

Thank you for graciously welcoming me back to the list. I confess to missing the posts of my fellow "Webderlanders", as well as your own cogent observations and fulminations. A pleasure to return.

Did not know of Mr. Culp's writing ability. A double loss.

A final thought on the late Mr. Culp: great art outlives the artist. Especially a great writer.

Regards to all,

William Sherman
Boxford, MA

BOB CULP

Geezus, you guys would have loved spending time with him. Urbane, witty, sardonic, gracious, smart, generous, good host, marvelous raconteur.

And one of the best WRITERS I've ever known.

Writer.

Yeah, dynamite actor, but...what a WRITER!

Harlan

McVICKER / HAUPT REPLY

Mr. McVicker: Brad Haupt's post is accurate. That version was my final draft, and included scenes that were cut before production due to cost considerations. DEMON is again under option by a smart and nice guy out of NYC, and he's trying to get a feature-film version up and running. Strictly a FYI note.

Yr. Pal, Harlan

SHOUT OUT TO SHAGIN !!!!!!!! plus one other halloo

SANDRA: Please call me when you get this. I think you have the number. JarChat.

A big welcome back to WILLIAM SHERMAN, who has been missed.

Yr. Pal, Harlan

goodbye Robert, we will miss you.

Condolences (and Texas)
I heard about Robert Culp last night after I'd logged off; this is the first time I've been back on the 'puter. He will be missed. Besides I SPY, OUTER LIMITS, GREATEST AMERICAN HERO, etc., I remember his own turn as Sherlock Holmes (sort of) in the TV movie that served as the pilot for Gene Roddenberry's would-be series SPECTRE. The concept started out as "Sherlock Holmes-turned-demonologist"; the story ended up set in modern times; the lead became more of a homage to Holmes, although he still had a Watson-like assistant.

As for Texas, our esteemed host wrote: "I have seen extended news coverage, in toto, full in context, in which Gov. Perry seems to despise, distrust, excoriate his country. That would be the United States. He speaks as if Texas is a third world nation. He spurs people to believe there would be merit in 'seceding.'"

Now, I know virtually nothing about Gov. Rick Perry. In my Air Force days, however, I was stationed in Texas for six years during the 1980s. Calling Texas a Third World nation is an insult to Third World nations (apologies to Cindy and other Texans on this board). Texas is the social and cultural armpit of this great nation.

Demon With a Glass Hand Graphic Novel
Hi, I just happened to have my copy handy. I'm sure that Harlan can further explain what the differences between this version and the version that was aired are, but the inside cover contains the following statement: "original Author's version, not rewritten shooting script as aired". The back cover states that it includes "scenes from the script never filmed". I couldn't tell you what the deleted scenes were however.

Ramin Bahrani's PLASTIC BAG is a masterpiece about the impending doom of our world, and unlike James Cameron, he didn't have to blow $500,000,000 to get the point across.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDBtCb61Sd4&playnext_from=TL&videos=5ESPLdpPumU&playnext=1

(In case you're wondering - yes, that's Werner Herzog as the voice of the plastic bag.)

Cameron vs. Beck
I know there aren't many James Cameron fans here, but I've gotta hand it to him with this following speech (from a press conference on the DVD release of AVATAR -- normally I'd just send you to a link, but this is a transcript of the speech, not the property of any site; I took it from Perez Hilton's site but don't know where he got it... so I'm just printing it in full):


"Glenn Beck is a fucking asshole. I've met him. He called me the anti-Christ and not about Avatar. He hadn't even seen Avatar yet. I don't know if he has seen it. I think, you know what, he may or may not be an asshole, but he certainly is dangerous, and I'd love to have a dialogue with him. He's dangerous because his ideas are poisonous. I couldn't believe when he was on CNN. I thought, what happened to CNN? Who is this guy? Who is this madman? And then of course he wound up on Fox News, which is where he belongs, I guess.

They're not attacks. They're just people ranting away, lost in their little bubbles of reality, steeped in their own hatred, their own fear and hatred. That's where it all comes from. Let's just call it out. Let's have a public discussion. That's what movies are supposed to do, you know, you can have a mindless entertainment film that doesn't affect anybody. I wasn't interested in that. That's right, I want to call those deniers out into the street at high noon and shoot it out with those boneheads. Anybody that is a global-warming denier at this point in time has got their head so deeply up their ass I'm not sure they could hear me.

Look, at this point I'm less interested in making money for the movie and more interested in saving the world that my children are going to inhabit. How about that? I mean look, I didn't make this movie with these strong environmental anti-war themes in it to make friends on the right, you know. They're not on my Christmas card list. It's not going to change my lifestyle at all if they don't talk to me. But you know they've got to live in this world too. And their children do as well, so they're going to have to be answerable to this at some point."

DEMON WITH A GLASS HAND
An interlinked question if I may: Can anyone in the group mind tell me if the paperback graphic version of the script "Demon W/A glass Hand" was the original script Mr. Ellison wrote, or whether it was edited/chopped/expanded? It's always been a personal favorite and I'd really like to read it in the version that Harlan wanted done.
Much obliged. Terence McVicker

"There isn't much time. Dance the dance electric. Who screamed?"

Prince.

RIP Mr. Culp. May the still breeze guide you home.

HARLAN,

From your comments about Mr. Culp in the past, I know that this loss must cut especially deeply. Please accept my sincere condolences on the death of your friend.

Steve J.

SKY RIDERS
Harlan, sorry to hear about Mr. Culp. SKY RIDERS of which you are fond was directed by my pal, the late Douglas ("Douggie")Hickox, who also directed my favourite of all my films,THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES, with Ian Richardson as Holmes. He also directed the ZULU prequel about Isandhlwana, ZULU DAWN, and a very good adaptation of Joe Orton's play, ENTERTAINING MR. SLOANE.

Harlan & Susan,

My deepest condolences on your loss

Mark

My condolence
I will miss Robert Culp as well.

My Mother was a big soundtrack and TV fan. If there was music or dialogue that she liked, she would tape it. I remember being under strict orders from my brother to tape the Zulu chanting from the movie "Zulu", which meant taking the Concord tape recorder, pressing the red button and turning the dial after you made sure that the mic was below the TV's speaker. This also meant you had to be very quiet and pray that the phone didn't ring.

One such open microphone recording was of Robert Culp in "I Spy", blessing out "Scotty" on a beach saying something like, "...and you tell your mother about what you didn't do!"

Subsequently, whenever I saw Robert Culp, I remembered that little audio clip and my Mother's lovely cursive handwriting on top of a purple and white Lebotone cassette.

Culp was a great actor whand I will miss him.

Brian Phillips

HARLAN & SUSAN: I am sorry for your loss. Keep his memory close.


Sandra

Harlan
Mark Evanier's post, here, addresses Robert Culp's character more than his acting ability. I thought you might like to see it.

http://www.newsfromme.com/archives/2010_03_24.html#018700

Unca Harlan,

My sincerest, heartfelt sympathies. When I was a kid, Robert Culp was the foremost exemplar of cool. "I Spy" the coolest show on TV. Mr. Culp was a true Pro.

Oh, no, no, no. That's... it's just not right.

Harlan, man, I am SO sorry. - B

Sky Riders: Soundtrack available, posters available: Time to release the DVD, Fox.
Culp was always a good villain on Columbo, did four of them.
The L.A. Times obituary
www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-robert-culp25-2010mar25,0,7406812.story
New York Times - www.nytimes.com/2010/03/25/arts/television/25culp.html?hpw

I don't know right now what the connection between Culp and McQueen is, but since Culp was interviewed for the TV documentary "Steve McQueen: The Essence of Cool" (2005), I'm curious. To see both of them in the same thing would be interesting. The unseen LIFE pictures Joe has mentioned are quite good.

Mr. Culp
He did DVD commentaries for every I SPY that he wrote. He sounded so straightforward, so friendly, intelligent and honest about his own failings in the scripts, that I came away from the DVDs wishing that I could meet him.

He shall be missed.

Yeah, that was lousy news today! A fall is often so damn fatal to people at 80.

I'm a long-time Culp fan, and from bits of past reading I sense he was a a loyal friend, Harlan. My heartfelt condolences. I'm going to miss his presence.

Robert Culp R.I.P.
Terrible, terrible day.

Robert Culp
Well, shit.

He was so much fun to watch, one of those rare character actors in a leading man's body.

The first time I saw Demon with a Glass Hand, he blew me away, even though I already knew exactly what was going to happen.

Condolences, Harlan.

Robert Culp
Damn, damn, damn... I am so incredibly saddened by Robert Culp's death. I would like to add my condolences as well. I can't convey how much I admired this actor's work, so much so that I wanted to offer him a role in my feature film (I'm an independent producer who's been working with B5's Jason Carter on a project). At least I was fortunate enough to have had the chance to meet when he was a guest at Motor City Comic Con a few years back.

The world lost another great one.

Party time...

For those of you who plan to attend BEA in NYC this May, Aardwolf Publishing will be having a party at MANITOBA'S on Wed. May 26...and Richard Manitoba (of the Dictators and MC5) will be on hand along with another surprise rockstar buddy of mine who will be performing (but we're keeping that a BIG secret for now...) Email me if you'd like to be on the guest list. And here's a tour of MANITOBA's:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3L4DkFzLHo

Harlan, I just got home from work and heard about Bob Culp. I'm so sorry. He was a wonderful actor and will be missed.

Culp
Just adding my condolences to the rest. Met him once, when THE PELICAN BRIEF was coming out -- he played the President and did a fine job. But one of my faves is HICKEY AND BOGGS. And I did love that I SPY.
Nothing beats DEMON WITH A GLASS HAND, though.

McQueen's 80th
Don't know if anyone's seen this, but on the occasion of what would be Steve McQueen's 80th birthday, LIFE posted some rather terrific unseen photos of the man at work and play. They made me think about Harlan's anecdotes of McQueen, and the profile that he wrote about him, "Centerpunching."

http://www.life.com/image/first/in-gallery/41172

Culp
Crap. Another one gone. He was always working, the old pro who could make any role shine.

Perry

Culp
Harlan's interview on KNX was just before 5 p.m., a little rushed because they were coming up on network news; Harlan sounded like he could've gone on for an hour.

I had no idea Robert Culp was an accomplished writer, which Harlan mentioned at the beginning.

Besides GREATEST AMERICAN HERO (he was the only reason to watch that show) I'll always remember him in an early Apollo 13 movie and a quickly forgotten movie-of-the-week called "A Cry for Help," he was an obnoxious radio call-in host who softened up to try to get his listeners to find and help a suicidal girl, it was done in real time if I remember correctly.

Culp


No.

I got you all. The second best Robert Culp role was as the long-suffering FBI guy Bill Maxwell in THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO

(from IMDB)
Bill Maxwell: (whips out his badge) Ok, welcome to trouble with Maxwell. Failure to answer the question gets you an all expenses paid vacation at the fed pen of your choice. Courtesy of that super power to the South.
Bartender: F.B.I.?
Bill Maxwell: F.B.I.!
Holly Hathaway: F.B.I.

His echo may be found in Bruce Campbell's Sam on BURN NOTICE.

A void has formed where previously pure enthusiasm reigned. You have to love talent and persona that, above all, conveyed such a wonderful love of life. With every performance, every character, Culp was just marvelous.


Side note: This fall Cris and I are headed for Hong Kong. Not the Hong Kong of modern life, but the one from I, SPY and other programs of its ilk. I still see it in the show's opening credits, whether it was there or not. We never know the impact such innocent shows of yesterday might play on our realities of today....

Robert Culp
Harlan, I'm so sorry. My deepest condolences.

Culp
There are days when I'm sorry I stopped by this board.

God, he was great -- always a joy to watch. One of the good ones.

My condolences.

--tr

Robert Culp, R.I.P.
Dear Mr. Ellison et al.:

So sorry to learn of Mr. Culp's sudden demise. My condolences to all.

My favorite role of Mr. Culp, outside of "Demon", was in two "guest murderer" roles on the original "Columbo" series. His cool demeanor, maintained while challenged by Lt. Columbo as he approached the truth to each murder, enraptured me. (Only Patrick McGoohan's appearances on the series impressed me more.) Will search for "Sky Riders". Thank you, Mr. Ellison.

Sorry to have left for a long while, but surviving a car accident proved to require more time than planned.

Good health to you all.

Cordially,

William Sherman
Boxford, MA

Robert Culp (August 16, 1930 – March 24, 2010)
I greatly enjoyed his work and I grieve our losing him.

Shit.

BOBBY P. S.

To the friend/Webderlander who just called me to offer ondolences, thank you. And the answer to which acting role, after "Demon," was my favorite of Bobby's work...

A little-known action-adventure film titled SKY RIDERS, co-starring Jimmy Coburn. Culp and Coburn, ohboy, was THAT a bountiful feast of smart acting and charisma.

Harlan

BOB CULP

Yeah, I know.

I'll be speaking briefly, very briefly, on KNX-FM, Los Angeles, sometime within the next 30-40 minutes. Someone at their city desk remembered Bobby starring as Trent in my "Demon With a Glass Hand" on the original OUTER LIMITS, and they called.

I can't do much of anything else for a long-time friend. So.

Harlan
With a Glass Hand" on the original OUTER LIMITS

Culp
He was great. I remember watching I Spy every week, staying up late against my parent's wishes, watching from the doorway. His Outer Limits work was memorable, of course. And "A Cold Night's Death" was much better than the usual Movie of The Week offerings had prepared us for. You can see ACND on You Tube, in segments. It still holds up pretty well.

RIP Robert Culp
Sorry, Harlan.

(Aside from the obvious connection I also remember, fondly, a now-obscure tv movie, A COLD NIGHT'S DEATH, with Culp and (I think) Eli Wallach as the staff of an Arctic research station beset by odd phenomena; slow-paced, deliberate, but with a helluva wallop. Would never be made today.)

Oh God. just saw that. Tell me, pleae tell me this is a sick joke?

I adored that man.

Oh God, I am crying.

Sorry for the posts. I am going away.

Oh God. No nononononono

I tried to proof and correct, and somehow it posted in the middle before I wrote "Texans have done quite well" instead of "yesans have done wuite wel|" which actually sounds kind of "Alice In Wonderland"-ish.

Sorry.

I found some interesting numbers on how much Texas pays out to the Federal government, compared to how much it receives back.

I won't post them, unless Harlan asks.

They're interesting, and not unsupporitve of Harlan's query/comments.

Not unrelated, one of the economic causes of the American Civil War was that the South paid a lot mre to the Federal government due to high tariffs on imported manufactured goods, than it got back in Federal dillars spent in the South.

One reason we didno't have a Second American Civil War (stay tuned...) is that since 1865 politicians have seen that thigns leveled out a bit in this area.

Yesans have done wuite well.

There is no state income taxx there, for example.

But it's not my state, and not my business.

Glad you liked my memoir of the first time I saw you in person, Harlan. Sorry if some of my attempts at humor rubbed you (or others, even) a bit against the grain.

I hold you in the highest esteem. I am practically an esteem engine!

Robert Culp is dead. Fell on his head.
R.I.P. August 16, 1930 – March 24, 2010

Texas
HARLAN,
I suspect Cindy and I will have very different opinions on this topic, given the disparate nature of our personal political views - but as a lifelong Texican myself, I'll throw in my two cents, then get out of the way. (Just to be clear, there isn't a nicer person I know who I'm able to so strongly disagree with than Cindy. She's a peach, insomuch as I've formed an opinion of her based off of this very corner of the Internet, and I'm looking forward to hearing her take on your question.)

Anyway, you hit the nail squarely on the head, Harlan. The answer, in my mind, is right there in your question when you ponder over the notion that people can see an obviously grandstanding asshat of a politician and still vote for him over and over, regardless of touting themselves as folks with good horse sense. The short answer is: Texans have mastered the fine art of resolving cognitive dissonance through willful ignorance.

The longer answer would be to simply elaborate on the idea that, because Texans are burdened with this notion of good ol' common sense, they do little to educate themselves on reality. Common sense, horse sense, God-given sense - whatever term one uses, it all means the same thing: My Own Personal Views, Given To Me By My Church And Parents And Like-Minded Peers, Reinforced By TeeVee Pundits and Talk Radio Jackholes. Texans don't watch the news, for example, to inform themselves of current events. No, they watch it to validate their own worldview - and any station, anchor or media personality who contradicts that worldview is not worth listening to. This is how Fox News took over the right-wing idea space and hijacked it to Rupert Murdoch's own ends, and it's how someone like Perry who exploits the famous Texan spirit of 'rugged individualism' while holding fast to the coffers and services of the Feds to help meet the needs that the state can't supply itself - people want the news to tell them they're right, what they believe is correct, and to assure them that everyone who disagrees is stupid.

This way of thinking, along with the standard apathy that seems to come with smarter people not voting (for some weird an inexplicable reason), tends to lead to people like Governor Good Hair being re-elected time and again. Yes, he's clearly grandstanding to his base with the talk of secession and the evils of the federal government even as he's sitting on the sidewalk, arms outstretched and palms open, eager for a Fed Handout - but no one cares because this is just How Things Are Done. Texans fancy themselves rugged individuals who don't need any Federal help, and they will cling to this notion even as they continue accepting Federal aid and services they desperately need, so someone like Perry who does the state thing with the left hand and the State thing with the right, aligns perfectly with their sense of how the world works. Texans can know the reality of things, just so long as they don't conflict with their horse sense idea of the world - and any time they do, Texans just turtle up into their shells and pretend not to see the discrepancies. This, I think, explains Perry in a nutshell: he is the King of all Texas, the embodiment of this ability to shape reality around fantasy.

If it's still unclear, think of all of the recent fracas over health care and the cries of socialism and death panels for seniors, then try and wrap your noggin around the notion that oodles of retirees living off Social Security and surviving on Medicare were still somehow convinced that State-reformed health care was a Communist plot to rape babies. It's the truest of all aspects of the Modern American: the ability to resolve cognitive dissonance through willful ignorance. Sure, everybody KNOWS that Social Security and Medicare are good things, but HCR opponents just IGNORE existing social programs that function well and fill a true need, in order to make things align with their world view. (Reagan spelled out the same doom and nation-ruining apocalypse scenario back when he opposed Medicare as Glenn Beck and company are doing now with HCR. It didn't happen then and it won't happen now - but it's more fitting to certain ideologies to believe it will, regardless of historical precedent and current fact.)

To sum up, the nation is entirely populated by a citizenry capable of molding reality to fit their own takes on the world, which is accomplished primarily through being willfully and purposefully ignorant. The citizens of every state do it, but Texans just do it better.

For the record, I've never voted for Perry and I never will, for precisely the reasons you've listed here in your query. He's the absolute pinnacle of human achievement when playing the strange and hideous role of a career politician: a blowhard and self-serving waterhead who'd be put to better use as a toupee model than having anything to do with running a system any more complex than a Sea Monkey farm.

Anyway, that's just my two Texas cents.
-Kristian

AT LONG LAST ------ THE FIRST OF 2 MESSAGES FOR
CINDY ONLY

or ANY OTHER LIFELONG TEXAN.

(This is not a gag, so the rest of you blatherers keep your opinions to yourself or go build a different thread. This is STRICTLY for Cindy, or Howard, or Joe Lansdale, or suchlike.)

First, I need you to hear my TONE OF VOICE.

It is merely querulous, not snarky; not snippy, not confrontational; it is a request for an answer to something that seems incongruent to me. I seek insight here, not mollification.

Okay. Now that we've got all the jiggery-pokery out of the way, here it is:

Kay Bailey Hutchinson was recently defeated for the nomination as Republican offering in the next gubernatorial fracas, come mid-term. The "frequently in the news" Rick Perry beat her by a substantial margin, as I get the news.

Rick Perry, and his behavior, unsettle me. I have very few simmerables in that stew, apart from having spent more than a modicum of time in Texas, and having a great many friends from there (most of whom have left the state). The waves of repercussion of the heavyhanded Christian Right's hold on the content of textbooks nationwide dismays me, of course, but...bear with, I'm almost there...

Gov. Perry strikes me oddly. I'll try not to characterize, because that would interfere with asking (as close to) an evenhanded question as I can pose.

I have seen extended news coverage, in toto, full in context, in which Gov. Perry seems to despise, distrust, excoriate his country. That would be the United States. He speaks as if Texas is a third world nation. He spurs people to believe there would be merit in "seceding."

Apart from the discontiguous logic of such a mere suggestion, he doesn't seem to understand that all the Federal monies that pour into texas for roads, bridges, toxic waste disposal, pure food and drug supervision and on and on and on, that everyone takes as a given, and which many think appears magically at night when the elves are repairing their Jimmy Choos...would cease instantly. Federal highways would break apart. Embargoes. No FBI or DEA assistance on the border. And on and on. I will not use the looneytune card.

So.

For instance.

Thereafter, soon after the "secede" speech, this IN FULL
from THE WEEK magazine of 25 September last year, from The World at a Glance, page 7, datelined El Paso, Texas:

"The Rangers ride again: Texas Gov. Rick Perry has dispatched an elite team of Texas Rangers to patrol the border with Mexico, claiming that federal efforts are ineffectual. The team, dubbed the 'Recon Rangers,' is a highly trained, commando-style unit that bears little resemblance to the cowboy-style Rangers of popular mythology. They will focus on El Paso, where violence by Mexican drug gangs has grown more brazen."

So far, so good. Now here's where I start to scratch my head, and what directly preambles my serious question to you, Cindy:

The article proceeds, no break: "Perry has asked the federal Department of Homeland Security to send 1,000 National Guard troops to the border, but the request has stalled in a dispute over funding. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, Perry's challenger in the hotly contested GOP primary for governor, accused him of 'grandstanding for the cameras in an election year.'"

Let us as Texans secede? Let us crankily take our state and our ball and leave your backyard and go play alone? Oh, and by the by, may I have a thousand National Guardsmen, ma'am?

I've been holding on to that clipping since last September, Cindy, wanting to ask you -- as old friend and smart cookie -- to clue me in as to how Texicans think (that's why all the rest of you, save Texans, should give this exchange a pass, at least for the nonce).

What do YOU, specifically, make of this guy, all the preceding, and the state of, well, "state thinking"? I am bewildered that a guy who seems to me so...so..."Willy Stark," so obviously a pandering, transparently untrustworthy
grass roots demagogue, spreading such paralogical nonsesnse, how does such a guy get renominated by a constituency always always always puffing up its chest on the use of good ole down-home horse sense.

I swear, Cindy, I haven't got a clue beyond thinking the less-than-helpful "mendacity," and oh just another self-serving politician. But that's way too inadequate for my need of some sanity in a world going ever more bats-inna-belfry daily.

This has been #1 of 2 for Cindy. #2 is somewhere down the line.

Yr. Pal, Harlan

I like "Screw the
Naugatuck better!

Best Intentions
Sorry for the double-post. My name in my previous should read "Screw the "J", it's time for the full name!"

To Susan
HERC Renewal package received. Sorry for the delay. Nicely put together, as always. Thank you for all your hard work!

Harlan mention in Village Voice
Harlan is mentioned in this article in the Village Voice:

http://www.villagevoice.com/2010-03-24/theater/spring-guide-theater/

It's about an adaptation of part of Samuel Delany's DHALGREN into a play. I can't imagine that, but Harlan is mentioned as one who termed the novel 'unreadable'.
Well, I read the whole thing recently, but I won't argue. It was tough going.

Apparently, Delany approves of the adaptation. If I lived in NY, I'd probably check it out because I don't know how they'll do it...

An Unbelievably Sensitive Human Being
Noo too long ago, our supervisor said something about what a pain it was to have as much money as she does.

If looks really COULD kill, she would have died that day.

Reform
I've been listening to the guy in the next cube bitch about how he's going to get clobbered in taxes because he makes over $250,000 a year. Somehow, I can't quite relate.

Socialism!
This is great: http://i.imgur.com/590Ev.png

In other news, leaving an incredibly stable and secure job for a new and risky one in this economic climate has me all kinds of tense. To make matters worse, my old job did some sort of bookkeeping black magic to deny me a final paycheck for the weeks I worked after giving notice, instead choosing to send me off after sixteen years with nothing but payment for this year's unused vacation days. So I'm short a full paycheck, don't know exactly what the pay schedule is at my new job, and I have a horde of ominous bills looming on the horizon like a thousand Japanese Zeros zooming towards Pearl Harbor.

Well, as it's said, at least these are Interesting Times...

I guess I should look on the bright side, though. Thus far, there have been no signs of revolution or blood in the streets over HCR passing as was predicted by Glenn Beck and company. That's something, I suppose. Still, I was kind of looking forward to watching a bunch of out of shape, middle-aged white guys playing commando through the streets of suburbia. I suspect there would be cease fire agreements during prime time tv, but the rest of the day could be filled with revolution and snack packs. Good times...

Hope all is well,
-Kristian

Steve Barber and Friends,

“The IRS is simply hiring 17,000 new employees.”, says you. Nothing to be concerned about, they’re “simply” hiring. That’s all. Please. To believe that Obama & Co. will not come up with the $5 to $10 Billion to fund this and that the IRS will not enforce the law is naïve beyond belief.

There used to be a time when people had a healthy distrust of government motives and its competency to run anything properly—outside of the military. Maybe it’s because I grew-up during the lies of Vietnam, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and the total cluster-schtup that was the “War on Poverty”. In school we read “1984”, “It Can’t Happen Here” and “Animal Farm”. Now just because it’s a self-described “progressive” President doing things it must be all right. And everything he and Nancy say must be true. No need for skepticism. It’s all good!

So it goes.

In my office environment, on the other side of the cube wall, si t anumber of conservatives so I have had the unfortunate experience of listening to them bitch and moan about health care reform. Sicne there has been similar debate on this board about the subject allow me to provide some inconvenient facts to refute some of the more inane arguments against this legislation:

For those who argue that the legislation is unconstitutional (and what I still do not understand is how conservatives can rail against judicial activism, yet look to the courts to overturn this law, sin't that judicial activism at its finest?):

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/11/constitutional-chicanery.html

For those who say that Americans do not support this legislation, two polls:

http://www.gallup.com/poll/126929/Slim-Margin-Americans-Support-Healthcare-Bill-Passage.aspx

http://media.bloomberg.com/bb/avfile/rfvr13o8CUiA

The President and the Democrats are seeing a bounce in popularity right now because of the passage of this bill. They will lose seats in November, with projections right now showing the Dems holding onto 54 or 55 seats and losing somewhere on the order of 30-40 seats in the House but if the economy does start to pick up, the those losses could be mitigated

Long story short, folks, this legislation is very good news for Democrats and could help push the Republicans into a minority status for a political generation

Mark

THE TRUTH ABOUT HARLEN IS HE TELLS THE TRUTH OR
The weekend I met Harlan in a writers workshop in Ft. Lauderdale he sugested I become a Plumber after reading a sample of my stuff. I had already been a feature writer for a newspaper drawing a weekly salary and published the beginning of a novel in an anthology including the likes of Billie Holiday, maya angelou, and kate millet which drew raves from the New York Times. I had advance notice Harlan didn't pull any punches and I wasn't there for a pat on the head but what did shock me were his next words and the way he said them. Maybe it was something in my face because I didn't say anything. He said, "Maybe your meant to be a reader and that ain't a bad thing." It was the way he leaned forward as if speaking to a child who had fallen down, lowered his voice like there was noone else in the room and managed to impart a quality of kindness that the words themselves belied. It allowed me to hear it without in any way being dimished. From that day to this almost thirty years ater I never have stopped writing mainstream short story but what I have done most in life is read and "that ain't a bad thing."

Rachel Maddow's commentary from 3/22:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x446271

David

Events we've seen in the last 24 hours across the country vividly recall the themes of a fine, smart satire:

Harlan's trademark tale, '"Repent, Harlequin!" Said The Ticktockman'!

Before us, at last, we see the ersatz borders between civilized behavior and social indictment break down. We see the drones emerge from their imagined Alcazar, long roboticized by their rituals, grasping desperately at any means to stop the workings of the great Clock.

I have some text here:

"Thoreau argues that most people serve the state without thinking and without moral reflection. Consequently, for Thoreau, these people have no more worth than "horses and dogs." Real heroes, then, are those who "serve the state with their consciences." Ellison draws on Thoreau's image of "wooden men" who "can perhaps be manufactured" in his description of shift workers heading for their jobs: "With practiced motion and an absolute conservation of movement, they sidestepped up onto the slow-strip and (in a chorus line reminiscent of a Busby Berkeley film of the antediluvian 1930s) advanced across the strips ostrich-walking till they were lined up on the expresstrip...Thoreau argues that most people serve the state without thinking and without moral reflection. Consequently, for Thoreau, these people have no more worth than "horses and dogs." Real heroes, then, are those who "serve the state with their consciences."

Such conscience has been absent in our leadership and our people for more than 30 years. We've come full circle from the days Harlan wrote about the Moral Majority, who, in fact, were practically given carte blanch in tandem with the Yuppie movement, bringing forth the worst venom I've seen in my own lifetime:


Three meritorious men, Congressman Emanuel Cleaver and Representatives John Lewis and Barney Frank were recipients of spitting and/or epithets by looney-assed Teabaggers just for doing their job so that those Americans who are poor or ill or disadvantaged have some sort of safety net!

I wish I could mollify my language, but MY contempt for those groups is visceral and gouging! Some people on this board seemed turned off by my anger. Yet, what could possibly INVALIDATE my anger?

I think this is the beginning of a fight that was put on deferment when Reagan got elected, placating the racists, the bigots, the right wing militants, the religious zealots, the uneducated blue collars, and the motley crowd of philistines - postponing the aim of so many movements that emerged over a decade earlier. The Reagan Movement - which rubber stamped big business and the financial industry, and sold it to nearly 200 million suckers - opened an incomprehensible path that could only lead to fascism.

Now that the liberal movements are regaining thrust from where they left off some 30 years ago, the looney violent freaks are all coming out of the woodwork! It HAD to happen. And that's good, because a showdown is essential to uproot this sickness.

We're going to see factions collide, some absorbing others, and some extricating one another, and after god knows how much time, those who claim propriety over the American system as some sort of birthright - will fade into extinction. That's what will determine whether America evolves or turns into Capitalist compost.

The frightening part of it is that, ideologically, the country is still divided nearly half; HALF - as in the obtuse versus the acute. That means if the latter, even a small part, is unmotivated to vote, the country falls into control of the obtuse. It remains a volatile landscape.

For chrissake, only in this country, could a little regulation on the health care system explode like Birmingham in 1963!!

The drama demonstrates the brain-numbing grip Corporate America has had on half the American population, and its inducement of caste gradients! The ONLY way a society finds awakening is by wresting the system from one group that places itself above everyone else. Martin Luther King wrote about that in his Birmingham jail, and it's a truth that's followed human history from its earliest tribes.

Fever Dream #481:
1962 -- Sergio Leone tapped to direct Funicello & Avalon in "Beach Party," with Badalamente soundtrack featuring Dick Dale & the now-iconic version of "Miserlou." Harvey Lembeck utters classic line, "We don't need no steenking badges!"

(The dental archaeology proceeds apace. I keep up with y'all when I'm not whacked on aspirin or broacast TV, a vastly underrated analgesic.)

Tony Isabella
Just wanted to pop in and say thank you to Tony Isabella for that link (An Open Letter to Conservatives).

I put a link to it on my enormously popular family news website (wink) where at least 14 of my 38 cousins will see it and have a cow.

Merci beaucoup.

The Ham steps up

My friends:

My first-ever acting demo reel is finished and online, here:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xI22qjrRjN4

REPLY TO AMPARION
Thank you. A kindly and generous post. Took the raw mean edge off a couple of earlier ones intended to unman me.

Oddly, I even remember that day. And it WAS Norman.

In all things universal, but somehow not including Langer's-level most-exquisite-IN-the-universe pastrami, Norman is a font, a fount, or the OTHER font, of wisdom and proficiency.

But when it came to deli, well, not his usual luntzmahn Solomonic smartypants, as Abe Simpson would put it.

Thank you again, dear. Yr. Pal, Harlan

REPLY TO GREG HURD:

Greetings from a fellow Michigander. (Actually, I hate that term.) I am not a Limbaugh fan, and well aware of his history. Other right wing radio hosts are at least more entertaining to listen to for five minutes while driving in the car. I do realize he backpedals and all that other stuff. Check out the following link, though, where it isn't clear what he means:

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20000188-503544.html

He was, in fact, replying to a question about where would he go for health care if the bill passes. CBS notes, though, that Coasta Rica has government run health care. To me, it seems he was legitimately taken out of context by most of the media. It only adds fuel to his supporters' fire.

Not that any of this really matters, of course. Wern't there a bunch of celebrities who said they'd leave the country if Bush were re-elected? Again, who cares.

--Grayson

No, Ray is right. We are hiring 17,000 IRS staff to spy on Americans. But not just any Americans. They will be spying on anyone who doesn't support our new direction.

This is just the beginning. We are going to nationalize at least one major industry a year. Then we are going to pass an amendment barring profit-taking of more than 10% of the gross for any enterprise.

The idea is to shrink the money supply, so that once we get the collective farms going, people will be happy simply hoeing radishes with their comrades, and not spend their time worrying about buying LCD television sets.

Beards on men will be strongly encouraged, and women will get free contraception starting when they turn 14. High-schoolers will be required to take two years of Arabic. Private cars, guns, and fishing boats will be banned. Meat consumption will eventually become illegal.

The flag will be redesigned in white and green, with a simple oak leaf in the middle. Dead old white guys will be removed from our currency (what's left of it), and replaced with the images of Noam Chomsky, Emma Goldman, and H. Rap Brown.

Homosexual love will be celebrated during a week-long festival called Gayness. Churches will be converted to health food coops and crafts stores. The Internet will be shut down except for defense and federally-sanctioned barter.

Should anyone not like to live in this new society, the Mexican border is not far away, and they don't police it much. A free pair of flippers and snorkel will provided to any teabagger who wants to swim the Rio Grande.

I for one can't wait!

On the third hand
You can choose to not drive a car. You have no way to avoid buying health insurance if you can pay for it.

That this is an extension of government power over the individual is obvious. It may be warranted, it may not be. It is what it is.

This is a change. As the President said, "This is what change looks like."

Please note, I am not making an argument for or against Health Care Reform or the new law. I am just smart enough to not get into that here.

The first time I "met" (saw in person) Harlan Ellison, it was 1978. I stood in Santa Monica Boulevard, at a small nookish book shop, run by Sherry Gottlieb called "A Change Of Hobbit", and listened to Ellison read a story of his. After the reading, and a bit of kibitzing with the audience, Harlan Ellison and a friend (who might have been Norman Spinrad) stood on the sidewalk before the shop, discussing where to go for a meal. I stood perhaps ten feet away, talking to a companion and idly eavesdropping on Harlan's conversation. "Eavesdropping" might be a tad strong. I was aware of their conversation, but not making any effort to listen. it was just there, and I was oddly fascinated by the mundanity of it. "Incredible. He's quite the Normal Person!"

In other words, just because I thought he walked on water and was a minor part time resident of Olympus didn't mean he wasn;t given to mortal needs and an argument with a friend over what deli was the best for a nosh. For all that I thought I "knew" Harlan Ellison, he was an individual with his own mysteries that I would never know. Not his publisc self when he was, well, "offstage".

Yeah, a "duh" moment. This is a given. Time to time we need such. They ground us.

And yet, Harlan Ellison looked, sounded and dressed exactly as he presented himself in his books and other media.

Even the black leather jacket he wore that Sunday afternoon looked very much like that he wore in back cover photographs found on many paperbacks of his work.

I had, even at that time, met a goodly number of famous writers. Harlan Ellison was the first that had this high a level of, what shall I call it, "verisimilitude"? Gravitas? Truth In Advertising?

I saw him last a year ago, again in West "L.A.", sans leather jacket, but otherwise the same.

He's quite a man.

I used to have a daydream of being his buddy, we'd natter about where to go for lunch, and then he'd slap me on the shoulder and tell me we were going where he wanted to, "so shut yer piehole and get ready for a meal you will never forget."

But that Harlan Ellison was my own creation, and you know what, I had lunch with that "person" a million times.

And it was good.

I guess this is a sign of Old Age, that I am content with that.

That which does not kill me...
makes me stranger,

Politics as Usual

Fascinating, as Spock might say, the disingenuous and facile statements that the Republicans are offering up. This is not the democratic process! they whine. You are treading on our rights! After eight years of shoving civil liberties down the toilet during the Previous Occupant's tenure in the White House? Using the same loopholes to give the rich guys tax breaks?

Nobody is against health care reform, but this isn't the way! they lament. The way they offered health care reform up during Previous Occupant's tenure is the ticket? Pray for it?

We can't afford it! they piss and moan. Just as they pissed and moaned during the arguments against Social Security and Medicare.

It won't help anybody! they bleat. Just as they bleated during the debate over the Civil Rights Act and giving women the right to vote. Separate-but-equal. Barefoot-and-pregnant.

The Republicans have become the just-say-no-except-for-tax-breaks-for-the-rich-white-guys party. Let's have a war, that'll fix everything!

Above all, guard the status quo.

They claim the big tent, but there's no room in it for anybody except the white guys.
Yeah, they want the Latino and Black and Gay and Lesbian and atheists' votes, but that's all they want. Y'all stand in the back over there and don't make too much noise. If we could win without you, you'd be outside in the rain, take what you can get.

Well, well, looky here. It's your turn in the barrel, guys.

That's how it works.

Perry

Ha, ha, ha, ha, haaa, hahhh!!

So many fucking rubes on the internets.

---------

Ray, you make my head hurt.

Read David Cay Johnston. He is an expert on tax policy. Bush never hired enough IRS employees to go after tax cheats, real tax cheats. They are so understaffed that they cannot investigate most of the tax shelters created by corporations, many who pay zero taxes.

Calm down now and drink some coffee. Betta than tea.

responses

Ray Carlson - the insurance reform that was just signed into law doesn't mandate that anyone buy a specific plan, it mandates that everyone buy at least some sort of plan - each person picks which provider they want - and offers subsidies to make sure that everyone can afford it. AND it offers exemptions to those who simply cannot afford insurance even with subsidies.

It's not that different then the way my state (CA) and many others mandate that every driver buy car insurance.

Somehow I think democracy can survive this blow.

"Wise" Man - Frank gets to come here for the same reason that you or I can - at Harlan's whim. It's his playground.

For myself, although Frank often makes me crazy - the very special crazy that comes when you feel like someone you basically agree with is arguing so illogically or antagonistically that it undermines your shared viewpoint - I do admire his willingness to step up to the plate again and again when so many people (including me) are likely to pounce. He has passion, and he definitely follows the dictum to "be sand, not oil, in the machinery of the world." I think he is sincere and I like that.

Also, dude has the stones to sign his own name - or at least his initials - when he posts whatever infuriating thing he has on his mind. A policy you might consider.

MM

Ann Coulter claims to be victim of hate crime

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Right+wing+firebrand+Coulter+will+file+grievance+with+rights+panel/2716429/story.html

Oh my Lord. This is...this is just...

BWAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

An Open Letter to Conservatives:

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/a/m/americandad/2010/03/an-open-letter-to-conservative.php?ref=recdc

Ray Carlson, please forgive me, but that's utter nonsense. First, the IRS is simply hiring 17,000 new employees.

As for the 'audits and enforcement'? Here is what even FOX NEWS says about the topic:

"The health care reform bill to be signed Tuesday by President Obama would give the IRS a new mandate to enforce some of the initiative's key provisions — but apparently not the means to do so.

Under the Senate bill approved Sunday by the House, the Internal Revenue Service would be called on to ensure Americans are obtaining health care insurance and businesses are offering it, or else they could face fines. Many would receive subsidies to help pay for insurance.

The emphasis is on incentives for healthy people to buy insurance, thereby spreading the risk of older, less healthy people over a broader pool of customers. For those earning between $22,050 and $88,200, there are tax credits for health insurance premiums. In addition, individuals initially face fines of up to $750 for not buying in; businesses would face fines of up to $3,000.

It will cost the IRS $5 billion to $10 billion over 10 years to handle the new workload, according to a March 11 estimate by the Congressional Budget Office. But the Senate bill doesn’t provide any funding for the expansion of the IRS, and it virtually ties the hands of the IRS to collect fees on individuals and businesses who don’t buy health insurance.

“The use of liens and seizures otherwise authorized for collection of taxes does not apply to the collection of this penalty," according to the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation. "Non-compliance with the personal responsibility requirement to have health coverage is not subject to criminal or civil penalties under the code and interest does not accrue for failure to pay such assessments in a timely manner."

That means there’s virtually nothing the IRS can do to enforce the fines in the legislation, forcing the tax man to rely on the consciences of taxpayers or to skim off any federal benefits, tax credits or refunds they have coming to them."


Please, enough of the overt misinformation.

Mr. Carlson,

I am curious, have you read the Health Care Bill or merely had this misinformation regurgitated to you via Faux News? I can tell you that I have looked over parts (not all, but sections at least) of the legislation and can tell you that I can find nothing even remotely similar to what you are describing. Perhaps it is in the same "death-panels" section that is visible only to right-wingers?

Media Matters is one of my favorite websites and they have presented a smapling of some of the more outrageuous statements from Republicans on how health care will destroy this country:

http://mediamatters.org/research/201003220034

I ask you, Mr. Carlson, why people like yourself are so up in arms over a piece of legislation modeled after the Mass. health care plan (signed into law by Gov. Romney) and which incporates elements from studies done by the Heritage Foundation (an extremely conservative group) back in the 1990s.

From Huffington Post (and yes I realize both of the wesbites I am citing are liberal ones), here is a listing of the top 18 immediate effects of the health care legislation:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/22/health-reform-bill-summary_n_508315.html

Elimination of pre-existing conditions is a prominent feature, as is better coverage for early retirees, appeals process, transparency, all these are listed but curiously nothing about forcing poeple under threat of torture (hey, weren't you guys in favor of that, anyway) to buy government sponsored health care

It ain't a perfect bill and is not one that I am in love with (universal coverage would have been my preference) but it is, at least, a start. Considering that the Congressional Budget Office came out with a study showing that this plan would reduce the deficit over the next 10 years I am struggling to see what rational argument there is against health care reform

Mark

Like an idiot, I hit the link provided by Damn Fool. I'd suggest hitting this link instead: http://comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=25265. It's an interview with Harlan about a project that didn't end as expected.

As with the health care reform bill: check the source, get the facts, and avoid the whiny, punk-ass-bitch complainers.


I might as well pass along a small epiphany I had this past week. I'm on the board of a local park (which has a dandy statue of Charles Dickens, and yes, we love it a lot). We've been planning a major renovation of the park's main section for about a decade, and now that a perfect storm of funding has come through from several city and state departments, we'll be moving ahead on construction this year. We hope.

Anyway, I walked a friend over to where a regular crew of volleyballers were playing, and wound up overhearing their conversation. They were complaining about the impending construction. They'll have to relocate for the duration, of course, so there's that reason. But they were also waxing sarcastic over how "they" (i.e., the board I'm on) want to make this a "nice Victorian park," and chase out undesirables... like volleyball.

I've been grinding my teeth a little over this. Obviously, we're not chasing out volleyball players. We've been planning this for ten years, We've had no end of public meetings. Two of our planning people-- me and another guy-- have played with them from time to time. So it's not as though this was a surprise for them.

Their area's been beaten into a dusty rectangle of hardpan, and they complained about the dust last year. And because of this, we considered installing a permanent volleyball court for them. But they didn't organize to show support for it, and without evidence of support or maintenance... well, we're churning the soil and planting grass seed so everyone can enjoy that space.

But it occurred to me that the people who've complained about this project are always the ones who are the least involved. We never hear from them until the last moment. And when they do complain, they never muster up the energy to do anything about it; they seem to think that it's the responsbility of others to respond, and right away, too. Happily, this laziness kind of mitigates the old "hell hath no fury like the uninvolved."

And it occurred to me that this is pretty much like the teabagger movement. Sure, focus on the racists and illiterates, but most of them strike me as people who simply haven't paid attention to how the country is run, who are getting upset when bad management has inconvenienced them, and simply can't understand that _good_ management may not match their half-brained, flighty mythologies.

The teabaggers seem to think that the country was doing just fine prior to the recent financial collapse, that the United States is a capitalist society, and that their affluence was due to unrestrained free markets and faith in God and Sonny Jesus. But the fact is that our country is a mixed economy, where socialist systems operate to constrain and strengthen capitalist commerce; the collapse of their affluence is what happens when you yank away these constraints and let the "free market" burn itself out; and Jesus ain't done shit about it. But, when people who understand most of this have to take charge and fix things, the teabaggers react like autistics whose routines have been interrupted; they throw out crazy screams so people will share their discomfort.

So okay, taking responsibility isn't as glamorous or heroic as Fighting the Power. It's boring work. But sometimes it's more important to run things well.

Just So You Know...

17,000 new IRS employees will be hired to spy on Americans monthly and make sure they are buying government-approved insurance plans.
Not the insurance you want, but what the government deems appropriate.

You will be forced--by the government--to buy something you may not want or be punished with a fine or jail time. If the government can force you to buy this, what's next?

My friends, this is tyranny plain and simple. You can dress it up in the cloak of do-gooderism, but it's an assault on our liberties. Our founding fathers revolted against less tyranny than this, but apparently many folks would rather live as drones just so they can have "free" stuff. In this case health-care.

No one is saying we don't need health-care reform, but this monstrosity of bill is not it.

Simple Rule to Follow
If the Republicans are against something, it MUST be a good thing.

Are Republicans FOR anything, except no taxes for rich people?

Health Bill

Hey, all the best with the health reforms.

The Aussie system is not perfect for everyone. For instance, it forces me to pay a substantial levy ($1000+) at tax return time because I don't have private health insurance, which itself costs a minimum of $100 per month for basic cover.

However, my brother and mother both beat cancer via the public hospital system without paying a cent.

* * *

Obligatory Ellisonia Content: comic illustrator friends visiting me from Sydney became HE fans after seeing his episode of Stanley Wiater's DARK DREAMERS on DVD.

-Rod

This is about Ellison.
http://pimpernelsblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/harlan-ellison-cant-be-bothered.html

I re-read "The Man Who Was Heavily Into Revenge" this evening to soothe my own offended sensibilities. I enjoyed it as much this reading as I did the first three.


shagin

Why is it that Frank Church is allowed to continue to post here? All he does is post stupid shit that means nothing. He never posts anything to do with Ellison. And he is constantly trolling for fights. He is a cancer. And did anyone else notice he posted twice today? He tried to make the second post look invisible by using fc instead of his full fake name.

Gray Son + The Alternative Universe of Rush Limbaugh
Rusty has made a living out of saying things, changing them, stating several diverse opinions on something then going back and saying how he was right all along. I've spent many hours driving with and working as this fool was on the radio, on + off, - mostly on-since 1989. (I'm easily entertained) When Clinton was president, his real satire was pretty good, but it was mostly one displaced cracker making fun of another displaced cracker. Plus he was always trolling for women, did get married and was apparently high most of the time.

When Jr. was elected, he got more bitter, but his tactics remained the same. Got busted for drugs, got divorced, got busted for Viagara of all things as he was getting ready for a long weekend with a group of men. He got more bitter and by the time Obama was elected went from hiring a designated black man to trying his best Amos and Andy. Then I gave up, except for maybe every few weeks. Today he made claims about people inviting him to Costa Rica, he claimed The Outlaw Josey Wales came out before Dirty Harry (http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_032210/content/01125112.guest.html).

Finding a two week old clip doesn't cut it. If you listen to him on a regular basis you will quickly see how he spins facts and opinions and rides them like a kaleidoscope. And if you read his direct comments, no one was called a fag or nigger. No one got spat upon. Apparently the baggers just sat around praying and singing. No one held signs Like Kill the Bill and If Brown Won't Do It Browning Will with a nice silhouette of a pistol. Please.

I had a random wacky thought tonight. I re-read One Life, Furnished In Early Poverty. It's about a guy who goes back in time to change certain future events. A few lines from the end the phrase 'back to the future' is used. Seems like a pretty big coincidence to me. But I may well be wrong; wouldn't be the first time, won't be the last, hopefully.

Fitz James O'Brien
Hi Harlan,

I was wondering if you've read any of Fitz James O'Brien's short stories. As it happens, I teach him in both my Irish-american Literature and Science Fiction courses. The influence of Poe on O'Brien is direct and clear, but I find him pretty imaginative, especially when it comes to transforming the Irish Famine into dark fantasy. "The Diamond Lens" is a nifty sf story, but "The Lost Room" is the better crafted piece, in my opinion.

For what it's worth.

MW

Despite all the media reporting so, Rush never said he was *moving* to Costa Rica, only that he would get his healthcare there.

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_030910/content/01125107.guest.html

"HARLAN - Lots of paper headed your way."

Oh no. We could have done this a long time ago. Harlan, next time just ask. We will not consider you any less a great writer.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18542-typos-may-earn-google-500m-a-year.html

Half a Glass

I am satisfied (note that I do not use the word "happy") that a bill was passed. I believe it's a camel, not a racehorse, but it's the best camel that could be cobbled together given the conditions. The conditions being an obstructionist GOP and a spectrum of Democratic values. It's a camel.

But when you're in the desert, and your car needs serious repairs, do you care whether it's a camel or a horse that rides to the rescue?

*And isn't Rush Limbaugh supposed to relocate to Costa Rica? A promise is a promise, or is he going to renege on the deal?*
__________________________________

HARLAN - Lots of paper headed your way.

To Ben Winfield: I agree with you, and like your reference to James Cagney! Funny, later that day I channel-flipped and saw a sequence of shorts that included his grapefruit-inna-kisser scene with Mae Clarke: synchronicity rules! And I still can't win the lottery. (Though as Fran Lebowitz said, I have the same chance of winning whether I buy a ticket or not.) Oh, your reference also reminded me of John Varley's Wizard-Titan-Demon trilogy and the insane computer/planet who took on a Mercedes McCambridge persona(!)

To Jan: thank you for pointing us all to the sfsignalarchive site. Art for books, done right, is so integrally tied to what we read! It becomes like a song to a memory, afterwards. There are some gorgeous book covers there, too. Funny, lately I've really been into the Dell Mapback covers of days gone by; the terrific and very distinctive style of Gerald Gregg, for example. (Not to mention later PB covers by McGinnis et al...) Reminded me of the days when I was a poor teenager in the mid-70's and got all my books from Goodwill; it was a rich resource then because no one wanted any of that 'junk' -- I got a lot of treasures, but oh the ones that got away!

Do the Research

Thanks to Michael Mayhew for that cogent business about thinking for one's self.
Many of us -- myself included, I confess -- tend to hear a soundbite about something that sounds awful, shake our heads and say, "Oh, that's terrible!"

And, well, it must be true, because I also read it in ____________! (If you are Conservative, insert, say, The National Review or The Weekly Standard. If Liberal, The New Yorker Magazine or The New York Times, and can I get an "Amen?")

Sometimes one side has the truth; sometimes the other; sometimes both, and sometimes neither. Parsing the stuff gets tricky.

Didja hear about that curly-headed stranger who murdered that woman's children after he clonked on the head? Terrible, terrible!

And then, a week later, Oops, never mind, the mother did it. She lied. Can you imagine?

Sometimes the kid was never in the balloon.

I've heard that second shoe drop enough so that when I hear something that just tugs at the heartstrings, I reflexively wonder: Really? I don't think that is cynical, only, sadly, realistic. Hard being a realist when you'd rather be a romantic, but the times is tough.

While it is more than a little flawed, the internet can provide a world of information if one knows how to do the research, and if you are here, you theoretically have the ability to do so.

So when Perry blathers on about convicted SF writers getting their due, and Dorman counters with what a neocon storm trooper cheerleader Perry is, you can go and check out the story and decide for yourself.

Yes, there are pitfalls aplenty and Sturgeon's Law applies to the net even more than it does elsewhere. But one can sift through the dross and find some value now and then before one leaps up and goes into one's maddened Donald Duck imitation. Better, perhaps, that you go and see if you can find enough accounts of the subject in question to make an informed decision. From more than one side of the issue.

This has been a public service announcement; your mileage may vary. Don't try this at home, side effects were generally mild. Call your doctor is you notice a sudden decrease in hearing or vision -- if you can find the phone after you have gone blind and deaf and can hear anything he had to say if he answers. If you have an erection lasting more than four hourse, call the circus.

Perry

All my Birther relatives are hitting the roof today. You think I'm going to endanger lifelong family ties by rebutting their silly, paranoid facebook posts? Hell no.

Limbaugh, your hope was in vain.

Immigration reform is next. Stay tuned.

Obama and Pelosi showed great leadership, at last, and I hope this touchdown inspirits them for the next 3 years to tear ass on the hurdles we still face, without clamoring for compromise!

The health bill is but an acorn, and it's a shame such a wait confronts those who are really ill and penniless. I know someone right now with a deteriorating disease; with funds and resources too limited, she could only REALLY benefit from a public option. Yeah, this remains a nasty problem.

REPLY TO LARS KLORES

Adventure received, perfect transit. Check goes out today.

Surdez?

No, nothing out of the ordinary, insofar as my interest in reading this. I always enjoyed Surdez, and some of his best were never reprinted in paperback...or even done first in hardcover. The one that always sounded most interesting to me was "They March From Yesterday," so I finally got around to copping the first part, and needed the second, now in my hands.

As before, my thanks, kiddo.

Yr. Pal, Harlan

deep in the weeds

First, apologies to HE, as this thread is already so deep in the weeds of internet hoo-ha that it strains to the breaking point the "even though this is a Harlan site, sometimes the dinner conversation strays" metaphor.

That said: Pissed off lurker, granted, I read Frank's post hastily. So now I've tested the misspelled-url-leads-to-evil-Google-ads meme in two other ways. I deliberately misspelled (by two letters) the name of a well-known site in my browser. Browser told me it could find no such place. No ads. I then used the same misspelled url in Google's search function. Google said it could find no such place, and suggested (correctly) the url I had misspelled. No ads.

Point of all this was not to attack Frank - sometimes we disagree and sometimes we don't, but we get along just ducky most of the time - nor to carry Google's water (as big corporations go, they seem okay, but the "big corporation" part is a huge caveat in my book) but to urge that he (and the rest of us) be a bit less credulous about things that can easily be tested.

And so maybe in that sense the thread is not SO far from a Harlan topic - what I'm trying to say is think for yourself.

Hugs to goofballs far and near,

MM

The Oscar
Please accept my sincere apologies if this has been mentioned before, but there is a long article about THE OSCAR here:

http://calitreview.com/7824

It mentions our esteemed host in a (mostly) positive light. I thought it was fairly interesting!

Best,

Derek

TODAY...
is National TALK like WILLIAM Shatner DAY !!!

Yeaaaaaaaaaaaa, thank you lurker but I can do my own bug hunting.

Mayhew, Amperion, shameful.

I got the story from the Week magazine. Blame them.

I sometimes (giggle) do misspelled urls and get directed to things like Huffingtonnost and the like. Google may have stopped the practice after fire came their way. Who knows. I just know that it happens.

I do radical stories the press will not cover but I am deadset against any and all conspiracy theories.

Bad timing?
When I visited Washington, DC last night, did I pick a bad time to blurt out that I just bought the last copy of the "Ladykillers" DVD? If I did, I just found out that the House of Representatives must REALLY hate Alec Guinness.

My apologies to Bart Stupak, but I really am a great shopper.

Brian Phillips

Regarding Google
This is fun: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7yfV6RzE30
(Be sure to watch it to the end for the 'payoff')

shagin - Congrats!

-Kristian

Dear Pissed Off
Yep, I missed that Frank wrote URL, and did not mean using the search engine. I'm sorry that I did not read more caarefully and misunderstood you, Frank. Hug. My Bad.


Hell hath no fury like the uninvolved.

By the way, PO. I don't think many people actually type in URLs anymore.I do it perhaps once a week, for something like Facebook or Youtube, the occasional visit to the ninety per cent of the internet that is crap

What with hyperlinks and "cut and paste", I don't need to type in a URL often.

Perhaps you do it a lot, Pissed? If so, and if you occasionally make an error, and if Google actually does this typo misdirection advertising scheme Frank reported, and Google thus makes money off of your clumsy fingers, and if that pisses you off, well I am just peaches that you have enough free time and bile for all that.


In closing, I recommend the paraqraph. You might use an occasional space between those endlessly circling sentences.

...in defense of Frank Church, and against lazy reading!

Long time lurker, seen much here, first time poking out of the shadows. Just pissed as hell, not the first time, at too many of you people for NOT READING WHAT OTHERS CLEARLY WRITE. Once too often. I couldn't let one more pass. "Amparion", first of all, obey the once per day posting rule. Despite your fancy pants "I'm so clever, even I don't know what I'm writing about" style, you only get to post once a day, and that's probably more than enough of you for everybody here. Then, the reason for my pissedness, Frank DID NOT WRITE anything about typing things INTO Google. Go back, read it for yourself, slowly, with comprehension. No mention of typing anything INTO Google. And Michael Mayhew, who've I've seen respond usually more intelligently, you did the same thing. Nowhere did Frank Church mention USING Google. Not there. He didn't write it. He DID write that when "they misspell urls people get directed to fake websites..." and that's often true. He wrote "urls", as in URLs, as in web page addresses on the internet. NOT search terms or misspelled names or anything entered INTO Google, or anything about USING Google at all, but if you (went up to the address bar in your search engine and...) typed in an URL incorrectly, depending a lot on what search engine you're using, you might very well indeed get a Google page that pops up with directions to all sorts of Google sponsored sites! Now my computer doesn't do exactly that, because I use Firefox through a Comcast wireless connection, and what I get with misspelled URLs is usually a Comcast page with directions to all sorts of Comcast sponsored sites. But my big sis and my mom are on completely different hook-ups, and when I tried it on their computer, poof, Google page with Google sites and all that potential advertising revenue! So if you had READ what Frank had written, and not conveniently misinterpreted it to take another unnecessary pop at Frank, you'd see what he was REALLY saying. The irony of his observation was that (assuming your computer is using whatever necessary search engine, etc.), even if you are NOT in Google, if you accidentally enter an incorrect URL, poof, you get God damned Google whether you wanted it or not! I've seen it, not as prevalent as Frank suggests, but it's out there, and if you do hit one of those Google linked sites, which I'm sure happens thousands and thousands of times a day, ka-ching, pennies from heaven into Google's coffers. Now it's back to the shadows. Maybe some of youse will read more carefully now, cuz I'll be watching...

Frank, you goofball

Frank -

Have you ever, actually, used Google? Your recent conspiracy posting is very easy to test: misspell the name of something in the search window.

What will happen is that Google will hunt up a bunch of things that match whatever wrong spelling you put in, but will also, at the top of the options, make a best guess what it was you were trying to spell and ask if that's what you meant. In my experience that guess is correct about three quarters of the time (despite years and years of writing all manner of things at the keyboard, I'm still a pretty clumsy typist, so I'm afraid I can speak from experience here)

I'm not saying that Google is some sort of global force for good or anything, but their search engine is reasonably smart and behaves about how you would expect a reasonably smart search engine to behave.

MM

PS I'm pretty happy about the outcome on HCR. It's about the most conservative thing you could do and still actually expand coverage and lower costs, so me being lefty I've got some beefs with it, and there is a good deal more that I wish it could do, but insuring 32 million people ain't peanuts. It's a very big step in the right direction.

Health Care
Has passed the House. I wish it had a public option; I wish they'd lowered the age for Medicare. But I'll take it.

Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. 4. Whosoever there fore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name recieveth me. 6. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better that a millstone were hanged about his neck , and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. - Matthew 18:3-7


This is how I know the Pope doesn't really believe in god. If he did he would now be on his knees in terror of his immortal soul instead of criticizing the Irish Clergy for a policy of covering up abuse that he himself helped to engineer in the first place.


1Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: 2"The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. 3So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. 4They tie up heavy loads and put them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.

...

13"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.

15"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.

...

25"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.

27"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. 28In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness. - Matthew 23


Of course the clergy are always the biggest recruiters for atheism that there are. Just this once though I must say I wish there was somebody up there keeping score.

Adventure Pulp
Halloo Harlan,

I was indeed otherwise occupied but mailed the Adventure Pulp to you a couple of days ago. Sorry for the delay. You should be receiving it Monday/Tuesday at latest. Let me know if not.

Best,
Lars

That was interesting
Frank Church supports the Chinese thugocracy because they also hate Google.

Do the Chinese people have no right to privacy or freedom of information?

I typed half a dozen simple and obvious "typos" into Google, such as "Hargan Ellison" and "basebakk".

I was not directed to any fake website by any typo I tried.

I found a lovely woman with the name "Hargan" on Facebook, and the official website of Major League Baseball. The season starts two weeks from tomorrow.

I did not see a single Google ad.

Whatever his source, it appears Frank Church did not test the hypothesis.

As a time traveler of the First Water, I can tell you that this is common throughout the various eons the humans have been playing with bricks. commonly called "civilzation" since around the 1750s.

I am no fan of Google. Their CEO, Eric Schmidt, has actually said that as far as internet privacy goes, "If you're doing something you don't want others to know about, maybe you shouldn't be doing it!"

But there is no evidence of a Google attempt to make money off of typos.

If there was, who is harmed? In a world where Toyota sells Road Locomotives that turn into ChristineMobiles at the drop of a cluth, this is something to worry ones panties into a wedge over?


The best part of time travel is the sex. So many women, so much time.

Since 1950 the city of Cleveland, Ohio has lost half its population.

Always a trendsetter, one of the first to leave was Harlan Ellison.

I finally found my lost hip flask of Soma. Bottom's up!

Rob, you have been ripping Michael Moore for years. Thanks for finally seeing the light.

-----------

Dorman, I love Aussies, I really do.

Kangaroo cuddles.

----------

Private Equity firms, those are the real devils. They buy up struggling companies, only put in thirty percent, make the company borrow the rest. They force the company to downsize employees so that stock prices will go up. After a few years they sell the companies before they go bad, soon after they go bankrupt. PE firms cash in, American workers get killed. It could force out another two million workers by 2011. Be warned.

Democrats and Republicans are part of the these firms. Be afraid.

----------

It seems Google cashes in on people who use typos. When they misspell urls people get directed to fake websites, loaded with Google ads. Everytime some idiot does a typo Google makes money. Google makes over four hundred million every year from misdirectional websites set up with Google ads.

China is right to hate Google.

As Watts himself pointed out, it's not the jury's duty to question laws, but determine if they've been broken. Watts also seems to have a history of authority issues. Sounds like the trial was a fair one to me.

DTS, would you be so exercised about these jack-booted thugs if instead of Watts this was Groth or Saperstein or another member of the Shithead roster, instead of some Writer.

The Heat Death Of The Universe
Such a lovely phrase for the concept of entropy. One with similar Edwardian scientific terms, all aglow with visions of green baize and teak with brass fittings scientific instruments, finely machined gears that glisten with whale oil under electric candlelight.

Labs with names such as Cavendish where walrus mousached, tweedy gentleman physicists with names such as Rutherford and Appleton work at blackboards in cellar rooms filled with the sharp tang of ozone from a back corner lab bench covered in electrical apparatus that softly hums and grants a lovely halo glow to the damp air of the chamber, the scent of a haze of mild pipe tobacco hovers overall.

Wet flagstone and the sound of horse hooves ni the yard as the morning delivery of handmade vacuum pumps and electro-filaments arrives from the station, the tinkling of the last ice of winter falls from the eaves as the morning sun of this first day of spring nineteen hundred twelve melts it loose from leaden gutters. The sunlight prisms in rainbow colors through the cellar hald-windows, refracted by the dew.

As has been written, the past is another country. As you look into the eyes of these phantoms that scurry and press at your elbow, that pass you in the Gare du Nord on their way to appointments and rendezvous that are dust to you, you grasp this reality.

Then, somewhere in the crowd, in one of those tricks of acoustics in large spaces, you hear clearly, for just a moment, someone whistling the first bar of an old Beatles song, "Hey Jude".

And you're off. This time to Germania, and ALbert Speers mammoth dome, where it is raining indoors.

This is why it helps to drink. It helps hold down the rats of DysTempoPhrenia.

Else I fly over centuries as though lashed to some millstone skipped across the wine dark se of time by Hercules as rosy fingered dawn colors all in veils incarnadine.

Can I get a drink?

Smart money, stupid people, and biased opinions
PERRY: It'd be peachy if you included relevant information like, all the jury needed to convict Watt's was evidence that he "failed to comply with a lawful command." Which means, even though PLENTY of evidence that Watts DIDN'T choke the officer who smacked him around in the car, and then pepper-sprayed him for not falling to the ground (after getting out of the vehicle in which he'd been assualted)...even though the jury KNEW Watts didn't really do anything worse than ask "what's the problem?" (after being beaten up by this JACK-BOOTED THUG, yeah, that's what he is), the jury still had to convict him: because the insane law, as written, states that even though someone might not physically resist, if they merely "resist" by not complying in timely manner (as far as the officer doing the beating is concerned) they are, in fact, guilty under the letter of the law. (And whether Watts was determined NOT to comply, or whether he was dazed, and scared the guy might try a kick in the belly or face, and therefore slow to comply to order to hit the dirt is something that was left up to the interpretation of the jury). Which means Watt's was convicted because of some idiotic law that no one has the good sense to question (just as no one has had the good sense to question this JACK-BOOTED THUG'S obvious abuse of power). As long as you're bespeaking the obvious, good sir, remember that Watts was armed only with his tongue: said officers -- there were more than two -- had guns and mace. I've known enough people in the military, and enough people in law enforcement (and, hell even in jobs like fire fighters) to know that certain types are attracted to jobs that involve the carrying of weapons and the doling out of force. Beaudry (the guy who did all the damage) sounds like just that sort of person.

In your first post, you make a point of pointing out that the jury _you_ served on(and, most likely, the one decided the verdict in Watts's case) were NOT the brightest blubs in the closet. _Now_ that I point out you're focusing mainly on Watts -- and not the obviously heavy-handed borderguard -- you suddenly make the jury in question sound like the last bastion of hope against a horrible charge of (gulp) foreigners who actually have the termerity to ask questions. Yeah, Watts's past conviction might have some bearing on his attitude, bespeaking a personality that is less tolerant of those in authority who step over the boundaries (and from all of the posts from various people in Canada, and even here in the USA, it apparently happens quite a bit -- but most people are too afraid to report it).


As for minds being made up before the trial was over: looking at your past posts, I could say the same thing. But I wont, because that's the height of hubris and disinformation (and it is one of the many things I've noticed is indicative of the current neo-conservative movment, especially guys like Limbaugh and Hannity, etc).
You can harp on about my calling a jack-booted thug a jack-booted thug (if it looks, walks and quacks like a duck...), or that I'm an expatriate, or that (from the tone of your snarky posts) you think my living in Australia gives me less say than other US citizens (hell, I'm sure you even think that my disdain for the "war" flicks of John Wayne and the fact that I don't have old Glory tattooed on my butt makes me un-Amurrican); but no amount of pseudo-patriotism (waving a flag, or a driver's license a "Main Street USA" address) will make you any less wrong-headed in your apparent belief that people should just comply with everything anyone in government uniform says, and that they shouldn't question authority. That, good sir, is a very a _conservative_ attitude (the type my mom and German grandparents used to tell me about back in the old days of _their_ particular country). And while it might make you smile and seem funny, it just adds to the dismay I feel over the majority of my fellow countrymen, and the fact that the downward spiral (of unquestioning faith in conservative politcos and laws, willful ignorance, etc.) will apparently continue for more than a few years.

All best from Down Under,
DTS (sorry for the extra post -- banning myself for a looooong time -- promise)

CLARION 1970 OR THERE ABOUTS
Shagin A big CONGRATS from an old alumni. Some people have a home town, a college reunion or some other point on the compass they mark as having influenced their life. CLARION was mine. I heard tell of it from an old rock climbing buddy who had attended the year before when Harlen was in residence or at least so he said. As a pertinent point of information due to a desperate miscalcalation in the amount of cash the trip from Fla to Mi would take I arrived $90.00 short of cash.The woman at the counter anounced rudly that I was short. I empyed my wallet. Still short. She stormed back some where into a back room and returned with a new found set of manners and an acceptance slip. Understand I was completely prepared to be turned down flat. But thats not what happened. On the alumni reports I recieve there is also calls to raise money for worthy students who are short of cash. Do look into it. Some of the best moments with some of the best people of my life were part of Clarion and some of those friendships continue to this day. To live eat and breathe writing with people of a like mind in a common place with no worldly distractions and demands. The best. Harlan Depression..Be generous with yourself so many of us care greatly about your well being and patient with your healers. Sometimes it can take a little time to tweek the right meds for your particular body chemistry set. What works for some not others. THe hell with us and anyone else that trys to lay demands or expectations on you and Susan until you are better. Anybody who is a friend won't to begin with. Be well maggie

In Like Flint

Just saw CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY

I was talking about almost every general issue raised in the film since the late eighties, predicting the outcome in the long run if we held to the course of Reaganomic policies.

NO one would listen. No one had a clue about what I went on about, yet they seemed to KNOW better! The more ignorant people are the more arrogant they seem. Conservatism was IN, and no one cared about the facts. I might as well have gone on about Bruno Bettelheim's Freudian analysis of fairy tales!

And now, in the face of massive foreclosures, the credit crunch, corporate outsourcing, and the crankshaft of corruption still turning fast, many more people are asking themselves, "well...how did we GET here?"

Not to provoke a debate here, because I've said it ALL, but recalling the one I had with Steve B. many months ago, THIS is why I refer to the American population as, by-and-large, an assemblage of stupid fucks. We've 300 million, with approximately half who do not research the mechanisms of a capitalist system, or the historical models that ARE there to learn from with just a teaspoon of scrutiny. They vote against their own interests as the blindfolded lemmings that they are until being drawn n'quartered.

People are unreachable until the worst storm takes down their homes.

You can't warn anyone complacent. You can only hope the message reaches enough people before your own life is dragged down with the rest of the ship!

I hope Michael Moore loses weight and looks after his health because we need him around for the many years to come!

HARLAN: I have never suffered from actual depression, so please feel free to disregard this. That being said, perhaps the MOST important thing is that you realize that this condition is cause for neither shame nor blame; it's just a chemical condition to be braten back and beaten down like a runt on a school playground--and both you and I intimately know that situation, and know that those runts can be tenacious little fuckers.
Look, I don't know if you ever slogged through the incredibly long-assed review of ANGRY CANDY I wrote for this selfsame site, but if you had, you would know that your stories in that book dug me out of a particularly trenchant trench in the slough of despond.

So take that with you when you need a happymaker.

And get good soonest.

ALL: Yes, I too am a comics fan; spending obscene green every Wednesday--and I can tell you that there's some great stuff out there, be it the standard tights-and-fights stuff from the Big Two (or the evil deconstruction of same like The Boys), their more adventurous books like S.W.O.R.D. or the upcoming SHIELD, sword-and-sorcery stuff like the new Conan the Cimmerian, all-ages stuff like P.S.238 or Amelia Rules, crime books like Criminal or Scalped, uncharacterzable books like Kabuki, and satire/comic art history books like Glamourpuss ... And much, much more.

with that in mind ...
ADAM-TROY: Thank you for the excellent "Dear Magneto" essay. Yet I have to admit that, reading it, the melody to "Santa Baby" kept going through my head:

Dear Magneto,
Your dream of domination is doomed
You don't count those
Stuck with being weakest in the room
Dear Magneto,
Prejudice doesn't just gi away ...

Dear Magneto,
You really need to be made to see
That your mutants
Aren't all that much better than me
Dear Magneto,
Homo Superior ain't all that ...

ad nauseam.

I AM What I AM
Why has no one mentioned our host's voicing of AM in the 2002 BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream"?

http://www.otrsource.com/C/chillers.html

It worked for me.

Congratulations, Shagin. I always go to some of the parties. Say hello, if you see me.

The Good News: Earlier this week I was accepted for the 2010 Clarion West class. All of the details aren't in, and I've only yet begun to stress over the financial realities, but I still consider it a feather in my cap and one I shall wear proudly.

The Bad News: Through my own fuck-up, I lost the file for my most recent story, roughly 4,000 words of science fiction that I was rather proud of because it was an experiment, pushing the envelope as it were. I haven't lost/misplaced/had gone away with the faeries a story in more than 20 years. I'll see if I can get it back with a file recovery utility. It's not the end of the world, but it feels like it at the moment.


shagin

Kafkahead: Not to answer for Harlan or to answer at all, but he wrote about his school days in an autobiographical story called "One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty" which is in The Essential Ellison. (I think you said you have the book.) His childhood also comes up in the documentary film "Dreams with Sharp Teeth" (on DVD (R1), iTunes etc.) and in several other places. People still attack each other because of real or imagined differences.

Recommended reading by Weekly Standard Associate Editor - at #3 an Ellison book.
www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/recommended-reading-ten-books-shaped-your-world

Not Harlan-related but recommended, from SF Signal: "We turn our attention to book cover art this week. A good cover can mean more sales for a book...but what makes a good cover? We asked this week's panelists..."
www.sfsignal.com/archives/2010/03/mind-meld-recent-sffh-book-covers-that-blow-us-away/

Harlan, Jeffty Is Five is fully online... at HarperCollins - the preview for "The Locus Awards" by Browne/Strahan encompasses the first three stories and the beginning of the fourth.
http://browseinside.harpercollins.com/index.aspx?isbn13=9780060594268

Bespeaking the Obvious

And yet, Dorman, good sir, the fact remains that an impaneled jury of registered American voters -- they get jurors from the voter rolls mostly -- heard the evidence, and, after due deliberation, found Dr. Watts guilty as charged.

We aren't talking about a DA who can get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich, but about ordinary citizens hauled in to do their duty, sitting down with the admonition that the man was assumed to be innocent, and that if the state couldn't make its case beyond reasonable doubt, they were obliged to set him free.

Did the Unseen & Secret Masters of the World lean on these jurors? Have THEY been shadowing Watts just waiting for their chance to get him at last? Another facet of the Grand Conspiracy? Come on, you can tell us. We'll keep it quiet.

Or is there fire to go with the smoke? Recall, that Dr. Watts has a track record of getting all up in Sergeant Preston's face, and a prior conviction for it. I don't know if the jury was even allowed to hear that, but mystery fiction aside, if the detectives kick in the door at a murder scene and they find a guy with a smoking gun standing over the body, it's just gonna look bad, you know? Maybe he didn't do it, but I'm guessing that's not how the smart money bets.

Not that you would know how the smart money bets.

I would expect that any defense attorney worth his salt would have checked into the backgrounds of the arresting officers to look for instances of earlier thuggery, that being key to his defense; and had there been any, it would have been trumpeted high, wide, repeatedly, and with the volume knob turned up to 11; and the jury would have taken that into account and freed the writer.

I didn't see that mentioned in the reports of the trial.

Standing on your authority as a U.S. citizen? A man who hied himself off to Australia to live and carp from afar? Oh, that's rich. As I recall your expatriate spew from this discussion last year, your first reference to the officers in question was to deem them jack-booted thugs. Your prejudice surrounds you like a noxious vapor. Your mind was made up before you got here.

From first reports, the border skirmish sounded terrible to me, too. My knee-jerk reaction was to support Watts, him being one of ours. Then I did a bit more research and it developed a fishy odor.

That you keep calling me a conservative? Well, that's just funny -- and a bonus.

Perry

Watts, Perry and what makes a difference
PERRY: What makes a BIG difference to _this_ particular citizen of the USA is how so many folks with a conservative slant to their thinking (yourself included) continually harp on ANY thing they can find in Watt's past (or behavior that day he was stopped on the border) to justify what clearly was an overreaaction by one of the guards. (And yes, I think continually trying to justify the bad behavior of armed, government officials who beat the shit out of an unarmed guy who, at best, asked "what's the problem?" too many times is, indeed, conservative behavior. Doesn't matter if you marched on Selma or were part of the Summer of Love). As long as you're going to persist in questioning the veracity of Watts's character and version, why not do so with the guard? Look into _his_ background -- ask how many times _he_ overreacted, roughed up civilians, etc. Peace officers are people, too -- and therefore not infallible -- and NOT above the law they are supposed to enforce.


--DTS

DAVID,

Harlan's AM voice is truly bizarre, in that it broke the typical expectations of what an "insane computer voice" should sound like. Up to the game's release, HAL 9000's eerie monotone had been considered the norm, but Harlan made AM sound exactly the way he probably first imagined it: mad as a fucking hatter. There's no restraint here, but that's sort of the point.

Where HAL was a tranquil sociopath, AM was more along the lines of James Cagney in WHITE HEAT - at least that was my impression. AM is just as self-destructive as Cagney's Jarrett just prior to the final explosion that incinerated him: "Made it, Ma! Top of the world!"

In his own way (I only refer to AM as a male simply because of Harlan's voice), AM is far more terrifying than Kubrick's original cybernetic psychotic.

Diana Bartels

Thank you for your kind words about my posts. Nice to meet a teacher who enjoys SF for once. Hope I can stay in touch.

Mr. Ellison

I have a slight question, one that is so minute and quick to answer that it will not be a waste of your time. I bought recently another book, called "Pulp Fiction-The Villains", a pile-up of great pulp stories on scoundrels, lovable rogues and masked men (with a modus operandi akin to that of The Spirit). If you may recall, there was an intro written by your person for the anthology, in the spirit of recalling these amazing anti-heroes.
In it, you mention how you were beaten to a bloody pulp (no pun intended in any way what-so-ever) by a bunch of redneck troglodytes with anti-semitic tendencies. Did this happen? Mind you, I don't doubt your own experience or the veracity of this enraging anecdote, but I'm shocked that someone would actually do that just because of your Jewish ancestry. Who could be idiotic enough to do that? It angers me, like a bull seeing the maddening red wraith of a red sheet handled by a toreador.

*holds the bridge of his nose and sighs*... Moving on, I'd also like to ask who was your greater influences of the pulp magazines for your work? That is all.

Kafkahead

P.S: Again, Mr. Ellison, I'd only like to ask you to try and talk to people running the publishing houses here in Portugal. It'd do me and my wallet (already dissected of it's monetary contents) a world of good.

Hi Harlan (and all his fiends and neighbors herein),

I've been slow getting onto the Internet (kicking and screaming before being hooked in, even though I know I have nothing to fear, but fear myself). I want to jump in and add my two wartime steel pennies to a couple of the comments below. Additionally I really want to say, in as non-Fanboy a way as possible:

how much your works, and through them YOU, have meant to me. And affected me. And hell, probably infected me since way back when I was unsuspectingly first exposed to Ellison Wonderland at age 13. Oh man: I needed no psychotropic drugs after finally crawling back out of your head! And it was straight sideways to the crooked timber of humanity thereafter, Harlan, and no looking back. And THANK YOU FOR IT. Your gorgeous fiction, your maddeningly wonderful commentary and sharing of genesis and exodus around your work and thoughts; your observations on culture and the country and life as for example in such books as those two bounteous glass teats; your anger, invective, humor, imagination and NOT letting us off the hook ever, your ups and downs and the old in/out and especially your impossibly brilliant-as-diamond-blade love of language... they are beautiful and wise and weisenheimer and yes absolutely dangerous; and gifts to Time.

Some other time if I ever get to I'll describe my first reading of Again, Dangerous Visions and why my BC copy has blood in the intro section -- how you made me bleed my own blood, man: hilariously and all over the damn place. Does that make me a fanboy? Well then, it makes me a fanboy. I am strange; I contain multitudes. Maybe I'll blather on about the laughter and joy and terror and deeply dishhhturrbbing experiences you've rained down on me and us from your dark-sky heights. You'll laugh, you'll cry. But dammit dammit dammitall THANK YOU for sharing your visions and voice and for being willing to swim upstream against the entropic tides and take us part of the way with you. We are one hell of a lot richer, and a little less alone, because of it and you. AND DON'T YOU FORGET IT!

Ok, that was one. On to AM. Well, as you better know and if not we will remind you, the story IHNMAIMS is perfectly ghastly. No, I mean praise of the highest sort here; it is perfectly-crafted ghastliness. It's a total mindmelt. I am destroyed, afterwards. And what more can one want or say?

The computer game IHNMAIMS was different of course obviously I know: but unique, and fearsome, and meaty, and real. As AM, Harlan, your voice and performance were an elegant add to the game's integrated, offsetting affect on us. Sure, at first how can we not know it's you? And that's actually pretty cool (fanboy alert!); it's you, talking to us just as we hear you talk to us via the written words. And you might think that would distract, but it doesn't. No, it lulls and misdirects us, like the best stagecraft. Not only did I stop thinking HE almost immediately, since there was too much danger and death and worse going on. I actually started getting creeped out by the caliber of your voice and expressions. Why does AM hate me so goddamn much??

We probably expect Phil Hartman-esque (of late lamented memory) burning-bush-or-Moses booming tones from our gods, right? Well, AM -- AIN'T -- THAT -- GUY. He's angry and petty and powerful and seething, wrapped desperately full of amself and gloryingly, ragingly, empty. We made him, he wants us, his voice needs to be ours in reflected scale and tone -- and here it is. To me this all makes for the weirdest, fittest congruence between persona and voice. Add to it the incongruence between user expectation and experience, plus the I-don't-know-what-gruence between fictional character and its author -- and the whole shebang just blows me right over the edge. Which is kinda thematically in keeping with the nightmare, isn't it? I guess I'm trying to say your voice worked, really well. Your performance was on the spot. And I'm ever so glad I didn't have to chat with you after playing the game; it would have, uhmm, bothered me. A lot.

Anyway. Apologies for the prolix and assumptive above; and I'm not one bit sorry. I mean hey, when am I ever gonna get another chance to talk to HARLAN FREAKING ELLISON??? (especially after the p and a above.) Seriously, man: thank you.

Everyone,

Thanks for the advice about comics.

--Grayson

The healthbill won't kick in until 2014, over a hundred thousand people will die until then. This is progressive victory. Bah.

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

Get rid of the market, we should all live in small towns like Andy Griffith and we should have a simple economy. Make everything we need here, only import things we cannot make, like Swiss Chocolate or French wine.

Credit default swaps swap spit with the underworld lord.

I Fought the Law

Peter Watts found guilty. By, one assumes, a jury of not-quite-his-peers, given my experience on juries. Most writers manage to get out of jury duty because being self-employeed and them being only guy who can do the work allows it. Unless one is trying to be civic minded. In the twenty-odd years I've lived in my current house, I've been summoned every two or three years. My wife has never been asked.

My two experiences as a juror indicated that a lot of postal workers and retirees must be summoned.

I read the accounts of the Watts border incident when it happened, pro and con. And Watt's account of the trial. According to him, his lawyer demolished the prosecution's case at every turn. And the jury deliberated for a long time but brought in a guilty verdict, he says. News reports puts this deliberation at about two hours.

Legal theory in the U.S., as I understand it, has it that you are innocent until proven guilty, and if the government can't make the case, you go free. That's what the judge told us when I was in the jury box.

I talked to some LEO's (law-enforcement officers), and not being a witness, but reading between the lines, came to the conclusion that Watts should have stayed in his car and kept his mouth shut.

Apparently the jury agreed.

Doesn't strike me as a case of anybody having waked one morning up turned into a giant vermin ...

There are folks who are going to believe that an innocent, mild-mannered sci fi writer was beset by low-brow thugs* for no reason* and beaten and maced into submission and ain't it awful? And if that was the case, yeah, how terrible --

-- but hold on a second ...

Buried in the news reports of the trial is a small point that nobody seems to have brought up before:

Watts was arrested and convicted in 1991 for obstructing a police officer in Guelph, Ontario.

That make any difference to anybody?

Perry

I should start drinking again. This lack of booze makes me see things like "famed toenail clippings" as "tamed toenail clippings" and "How to tell if your cat is planning to kill you" as "car".

I imagine them trained to dance a cute little she-bop, with an odd sort of dip on the back beat. They can also add and subtract by forming into the shapes of Roman numerals when given an arithmetic problem.

If the car is a Toyota, it's a no brainer.

Where's that bottle of pumpkin spice liquer the cook uses Thanksgivings?

I am SO off the wagon.

You Know Who, and if you don't, GOOD!

PS Health Care will pass by five to seven votes. Guaranteed.

Maybe eight if I stay sober.

Did I actually just write "If"?!

I really do need a drink.

Our beloved Unca Harlan wrote:

"A few of you are comic book fans, a few of you remember BEING comic book fans, a few more of you might kinda WANNA be a comic book reader from time to time, and then there's Tony Isabella, the less said of whom, uh ahem, the better. So..."

This is correct. Having utterly failed as a comics writer, I am now devoting my life to the service of a higher power. All love and praise to the scaly one.

May the roar of my lord Godzilla be balm to your soul and terror to your enemies.

Hey, it worked for L. Ron.

Pastor Tony
First Church of Godzilla

P.S. In what passes for the real world, 1000 COMIC BOOKS YOU MUST READ apparently went into the black by the end of December. At least I got a pretty nice royalty check. I'm pitching two more books next week.

Peter Watts JUST found GUILTY
faces TWO years in jail.

"A Toronto science fiction writer who authorities say refused to comply during an inspection by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in December has been convicted in the case. A St. Clair County jury in Port Huron on Friday found 52-year-old Peter Watts of Toronto guilty of assaulting, obstructing and resisting a police officer. He faces up to two years in prison when sentenced April 26."

While we are on the subject of Kafka in these here parts...

...Watt's account:

http://www.rifters.com/crawl/?p=1186

Hi, all. Sung in off-key warble - "We love you, Harlan, oh yes we do. Harlan, we love you." Best wishes headed your way. It be spring in Chicago, and the city is just lovely now. Should you and the lovely Susan want to come this way, the bed in my trailer is yours, I know several wonderful restaurants of various cuisines, the Art Institute got an update, the museums and concerts and theater life are alive. And I am sure similar invites are yours from friends here and your real world friends.And I know from past reports you are in the hands of good docs which makes all the difference.

Cindy, Paris does too get her grit from you. That you are also sweet and gentle goes without saying, but I just did.

K., I love all your posts just as they are. You write good. As someone who has taught your age gtoup, God I wish there were more like you here. Welcome again.

Trains

Just out of curiosity, as high speed rail has been a topic of conversation here. How many of us here are fascinated by trains. I am not talking trainspotting, writing down loco numbers, but the whole mystique of rail travel. The wonder of that silver track. How many people watched trains as kids and thought "How cool is that big lumbering beast?"

I ask partly because I drive trains. Also I ask because I find railways incredibly interesting, most epsecially those in other countries. I watch documentaries about them on Discovery, in the spirit of professional interest and curiosity. I find that although rail networks differ in terms of health and safety legislation they all have one thing in common. Little kids grow up having a love of trains. It is a common thing no matter where it is in the world.

So confess. Did you grow up watching trains that rolled by and thinl.... "Oh i would love to drive that"? Did you see the golden age of steam? Though that is unlikely in the US as it died long before the UK. What are your memories from yesteryear of trains. I will share my own first memory of the rail network.

I think I was maybe 3 or 4 years old. I lived in Dalmuir a little cess pool suburb of Glasgow. I lived in the top floor flat of a tenement building which overlooked the back area for all the buildings. From my own bedroom window I could look up the length of the drying areas and middens to what I came to work out was Dalmuir Head Shunt. It was a turning area for trains terminating at Dalmuir station that would allow them to return back to Motherwell or Airdrie. As a kid I used to wait, and watch for the trains pulling up to the buffers and watch the driver climbing down from his cab to get to the other end to take the train back to the station. It always fascinated me. Why were they there? I had no idea at the time, though now I understand perfectly. I also used to go the the local park, which had an entrance under the track and wait for that rumble of a train going overhead, just to hear them. Little did I know that 20 odd years later I would be driving them. Those very same 303 class trains.

That is my first and perhaps most abiding memory of the railway. Now its in my blood, and I guess I'll be there til I retire or die. There are loads of tails I could tell from my 20 years working on the trains, but most are libelous or far too sad to darken such good company. So I'll leave you with that lovely memory of my youth. Watching blue trains coming and going out of a siding.

How to Tell if Your Cat is Plotting to Kill You
I love cats, but I'm willing to entertain Harlan's dislike of them, if only to perk him up:

http://www.catswhothrowupgrass.com/kill.php

& has everybody seen Jon Stewart's send-up of Glenn Beck?

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-march-18-2010/conservative-libertarian

blowface

Harlan,

Hope yer better, bruh.

I'm feeling kinda scrunched myownself.

Love,
Rick

the inmates have taken over
Gamer guys 'n' gals are saying this here ARKHAM ASYLUM game is quite a complex humdinger. One fellow said The Riddler lives up to his name, so not all of the game is invested in hand-to-eye coordination. Month of May apparently sees a 3D version being released. I'm pretty impressed with the oversized paperbound overview book by all appearances, although I'm not a gamer by any means. Sometimes I need The Great Outdoors. Swell looking illustrations and layout, I should say. Any thoughts, Webderlanders?

new clip site
This site purports to be able to find any clip of any movie -- you know, when you're trying to remember who said what... I've already tripped it up on some old films, but you may have fun on it:

http://anyclip.com/

DEMONSTRATING MEMORY - DRIFT

Just remembered what odd end #3 from yesterday was.

Wearysigh.

LARS KLORES: did you send out that ADVENTURE pulp with the second part of the Surdez story? Hasn't arrived. Your $38 price was okay by me. Are you, also, okay...on vacation...otherwise occupied?

I await your halloo.

Yr. Pal, Harlan

R 13
Unk --

Here's a place to find the link for folks who are looking for retailers what sells R 13:

http://www.blackliststudios.com/

And how amazing is it that these things mostly tell the story in pictures, like comics are supposed to? I've only seen one issue, but it was fun. (Speaking here as somebody who has but one comic book miniseries to his writing credit, long ago, if not so far away, but a fair amount of kidvid animation. Show. Don't tell.)

Perry

I was a comics fan long ago. In those days, it was a love affair I never thought would end. But, alas...the artwork in the titles tying my addiction, as far as I was concerned, all went to Hell. Kept revisiting on occasion to see if it got any better. It didn't. Finally, I never looked back (except for some of the graphic novels, of course).

**I submitted the following anecdote over on the board, but thought I'd share it here since some never visit that board.

I wrote Kucinich before and after his decision on the health bill vote, to encourage a 'yes', even though I agree on every point he makes. I talked about not only the terrible hollowing of the bill, but of the lobbyists controlling Washington with so much money, as well as the abuses of Wall Street with our tax money.

Interestingly, I got a direct reply to my comments about the lobby. It wasn't from Kucinich, it was from Diane Feinstein - a Conservative Democrat. She defended most of the institutions I'd just decried!

HERE is a perfect illustration of the Democratic party, a sampling of what Obama has to deal with. The House, but more, the Senate, has far more Feinsteins than Kucinichs. That's why we aren't making the strides we SHOULD be making.

We need more Kucinichs.

Thomas Hall is quoting the Robot 13 recommendation on his blog:
http://blacklistedtom.blogspot.com/
---
Harlan, didn't we ask you not to send us any more of your famed toenail clippings, especially not any signed ones pasted onto paper? Nothing "inveigling" about it - in fact I will refuse to check my mail, and so will Barney, if I'm any judge of character.
---
Hi Laurie!
---
Re: "Kafkahead" as a monicker & "undigested opinions". - Hmmm, I should have mentioned my reasons. The use of real names (or parts of them, in the name field or underneath postings) is part of what makes the Pavilion (not the forums) different, and recoginzably so. Use of pseudonyms encourages certain kinds of people to appear anonymously and behave badly or write stuff without thinking. I was also tempted to address Joao as Kafka, and somebody elsewhere, independently, actually did that, since it's shorter. But enough said, just didn't want to come across as *completely* presumptuous.

Dear Mr. Ellison

Thank you for your kind words. I chose this moniker because of my similar ideals with good old Franz: the uprooting of a mad, mad system of red tape bureaucrats in favor of a more loosened method of government, one where the people actually act instead of waiting around for some papers to sign so that they may have the permission of the government to act (excuse me for the convoluted sentence here, but I think it truly reflects the essence of Kafka's work. Then again, he had more symptoms of Existentialism in his stories than the anti-bureaucratic messages. But I digress).

On another note, I also enjoy talking to you, a figure well known for it's abrasiveness towards idiocy and imbeciles (something that I share as well: I cannot stand the morons surrounding me every day in Physics. I swear they were spawned only to waste people's time and patience. I once yelled at one of them for starting a five minute banter with the teacher about using a spell checker on an essay. I was obviously criticized by my behavior; the idiot got away with it).

My question to you is: have you ever read any stories by Portuguese authors of any genre?

A big fan

Kafkahead

John Zeock--Happy Birthday. May you continue to survive and thrive.

Harlan...I went through some clinical depression a few years ago. Definitely no fun. On my doctor's advice, I tried St. John's Wort plus some ginseng capsules; this was very effective for me.

The other thing that helped me was swimming three or four times a week. I enjoy it a lot and even though I am no athelete and don't swim vigorously, that bit of exercise makes a real difference in my mood.

I am sure your doctor has explained about exercise, and possibly about the St. John's Wort, but I thought I would mention it anyway. If your doctor doesn't mention this, I'd bring it up and ask him if it might be worth a try for you. I take 3 capsules of the St. John's Wort, 300 mg a day, and 2 ginseng capsules. And I swim for anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour depending on time and my mood.

Yeah, I know I am not a doctor and these things can be very subjective....but, for whatever it might be worth...considering what your writing has done for my outlook and mood more than a few times... (I re-read "Grail" over last weekend--left me in awe, thoughtful, somehow more at peace with an imperfect, often unloving, world)....Well, I just had to say something.

Feel better, Harlan.

Kafkahead is our peach of the week. I quite like that.

He is seventeen so I cannot kiss him yet.

Trod those cobblestone streets with fire my friend.

-----------

Oh, how wonderful, Rush, Michelle Malkin, the infamous, gutted fishlike Mormon puke Beck go after an eleven year old kid who lost his mother. The usual, "he's being used by the socialist Obama, blah, blah."

The damned healthbill is gold plated and the loving cup is on the shelves of big Pharma and big insurance. Imagine if it were real socialism?

I cannot recommend violence, but I can think it.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/03/18/90669/state-of-the-health-care-debate.html

Here's an excellent, thought-provoking meditation on self-medication using the internet these dazed days...

http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/throwing-shadows-on-a-wall-the-internet-and-permanence/

Depression lifts, Harlan. Stay with it.

G.

Harlan,
I'm glad you know it's only temporary and the docs can whip up something to scatter the clouds.

Looking forrward to your smilin' face hereabouts, shortly.
Cindy


Darryl,
Thanks for what you said about me, you made my month. I hope you're well-- you are a keeper.
:)
Cindy


Sandra,
Thank you too! Kind words are balm.
:)
Cindy



Things around here have been hectic-- lots of runs to the opthamologist. Paris caught a beautiful pop fly-- with her eye. Blowout fractures. She's doin' great though. The kid is tough... didn't get that from me. She has 14 stitches over her left eye and she looks like she did at least eight rounds with Leon Spinks. She laughed when she looked in the mirror and said it's too bad that October is so far away-- she said she'd make a spectacular Quasimodo. Then she said it was weird, the day before the incident she had checked out The Hunchback Of Notre Dame from the library at school.

So far all's well. The doctors are watching it closely and I don't expect a problem.
:)
Cindy

FINDERDOUG: Oh, thank you! My sleep blurred eyes made read it the same way, and I was trying to get bird names out of brand names.

JOHN ZEOCK: Happy Birthday!


shagin

BACK ATCHA
1. Don't cry for me yet, Argentina. I'll be seeing the med-doc next week. Just checking in, not whimpering.

2. There is something special coming via post to Tim Richmond...Scott V. Norris...Barney Dannelke...Michael Zuzel...Doug Lane...Jan in the EU. I'll say no more, save that it is a sheaf of papers generated from this office. I think you'll find the contents inveigling. Soon. Within a week, I should think.

3. And now...a word from your sponsor:

A few of you are comic book fans, a few of you remember BEING comic book fans, a few more of you might kinda WANNA be a comic book reader from time to time, and then there's Tony Isabella, the less said of whom, uh ahem, the better. So...

I received yesterday, from a very nice chap named Paul Castiglia, the third issue of what I think is a remarkably artful, worthy, and most of all excitingly entertaining comic.

It is titled

R 13

and at first you'll think the art is more than a bit hommage to Mike Mignola--and it is, because the artist on R13 is a gent named Daniel Bradford, himself a great MignolaHead--and that it is deceptively simple. Yeah, right. The way Astaire could tickle a foot...a little. You'll find yourself going back after inadvertently skim-reading (a very accesible storyline) and realizing you'd missed a dozen tasties per page.

No sense my revealing any part of the story but I think you will come to love me for recommending author Thomas Hall's literary conceit in R13. I was blindsided, enriched, captivated. The writing, in three issues, has only made one (1) scratch-the-noggin "gaffe," that may only be me not being smart enough to understand why Hall did it. Not a major point, a small thing.

There are three issues so far, published by Blacklist Comics, at the usual modern-day price, like a sock in the stomach. (I actually bought most of my early comics in the '30s and '40s for 5 or 10 cents, NICKEL COMICS with Bulletman...and when they were WORLD'S FAIR COMICS, 15 cents. And still have most of them.)

But a good read is nonetheless a good read.

If you would talk this up here'n'there, get the 3 issues for yourself somehow, and enjoy them, it would likely save the ass of Hall, Bradford and Blacklist. As with so many of you naifs, they put it up on the internet, hoping an audience would find its way to them, and the dealers would order&stock the book. Well, naive and innocent, what happened was, of course, inevitable. Anyone who came to R13 dowloaded it, stole it, sent it out to friends and strangers, and so WHO, one asks, will pay the writer? Who will pay the artist? Printers don't work for free. And these guys are getting their artful asses handed to them.

I don't know where to send you online to find R13, but I know you will not let a good deed go undone. They are swell books!

Yr. Pal, Harlan

Old Joke - Depression

Fifty or so years ago, my mother told me a joke. I remember it because it was the first joke she ever told me directly -- instead of me overhearing her telling it to somebody else:

One day, I was feel sad and lonely and miserable, down in the dumps, and out of nowhere, I heard a little voice, and it said, "Cheer up! Things could be worse!"

Wow, amazing. I realized that was true! I resolved in that moment to do just that. So I cheered up --

And things got worse ...

Hang in there, Unk. If they can get the right cocktail balanced, it'll be like any other bug -- cure, no cure, but you won't feel the gray. That beats a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

Perry

Clinical Depression
I was diagnosed with it when I was twelve or thirteen, and placed on all manner of horrible drugs against my will, and I swore I'd never take an anti-depressant again in my life. But newer and more effective drugs have come on the market since I was a teenager, so last year when the depression got pretty bad I agreed to be put on EffexorXR, a fairly common anti-depressant. I noticed an improvement the very day I started taking it, though they said to allow four to six weeks. However, the dosage was much too high and the side-effects were pronounced, so I cracked open the pill and started taking much less than my prescribed dosage. (Which is a no-no, I get it, but YOU pay my co-pay to go back and get the doctor to do for me what I can do for myself, free for nothin'.) At about 20% of the original dosage, I'm a new man, with zero side-effects. Also: cod liver oil has been shown to be greatly effective for people suffering from depression. And I find that Valerian root, commonly available, helps with the occasional difficulty sleeping. And yoga. Lots of yoga. For what it's worth.

J

Today's Prayer
I must face the struggles of the day, but I am warmed by the fiery atomic breath of my lord Godzilla. May his scaly blessings be upon you.

Tony

shatterday
Damn it, Harlan, I feel so useless. Your work has pulled me back from the darkness so many times that an inability to reciprocate is maddening. I still remember that day in 1980 when I walked into that B.Daltons in Delaware and spent $12.95 I really couldn't afford on one of the worst days in my life.( shit, I was 26, what did I know THEN about bad days ?) I sat in a cafeteria, waiting for a ride back to Conshohocken and just went somewhere else. Listen, we've all been chided here by your doctor for telling tales out of school medically but I'm not doing that here. This is about my Dad- a sweet, gentle guy who turns 19 and winds up at The Battle Of The Bulge. Who was part of 1,000 men going over on a boat and then part of the 3 who came back and who went into a farmhouse with 9 other guys and woke up in a snowbank with a farmhouse in rubble and bllod and bone all over him. Until they discovered that he couldn't deal with silence and put a portable TV on a bureau he would wake up screaming. He adjusted. He suffered from what they used to call shell shock. (I think it's George Carlin who said that they keep trying to sanitize the condition, changing it to battle fatigue and today it's PTSS). But at 60 he went into Clinical Depression and he was boarding up the windows and taking in the furniture and it was clear he was closing the store down. But medicine,and in his case a psychiatrist ,brought him back and he spent the rest of his life as his old self. So here I am, having a Goldenberg Peanut Chew with my cold cereal (because it's my birthday,damn it) and reading that same SHATTERDAY, signed by Harlan in 1993 and looking at the last 4 words in the introduction---"You are not alone..."

comics
Now and then, I find a comment on the board that lets me know I'm getting up there in years. For instance:

Dennis J notes that he remembers getting a full story cover-to-cover for 75 cents.

Well, I can remember getting 'em for 12 cents.

Stopped getting comics when I was 13 or 14 and started spending the lawns/errands/allowance/bottle-refund money on paperback books instead (mostly 50 cents at the time, though you could still find a few titles from Pocket Books at 35 and a bunch of Ace titles were still set at 40 and 45 -- the first paperback edition of Heinlein's Glory Road came out from Avon at 75 cents and it took me a week to talk myself into spending that much).

In my comics boxes when I quit were first issues of Spiderman, X-Men, Avengers, Sgt. Fury, and others. I was a bit late getting to Fantastic Four and had missed the first five. Now and then I see those comics in glass cases in collectors' corners with big price tags on them. And what happened to these groceries-for-a-year-or-more lovelies? Did my mother throw them away--can I blame her? No. When I started buying paperbacks, I gave them to one of the kids down the street who was just starting to read comics. I like to think that HIS mother threw them away.

Bests to all,

--tr

Question for Harlan about Sherlock Holmes
In an interview you said that you found the "Jeremy Brett" Holmes BBC series to be "the perfect version". Not having seen much of the Brett series, I cannot speak about it, however, have you heard the BBC Radio dramatizations starring Clive Merrison as Holmes and Michael Williams as Dr. Watson? Not only are they faithful to the stories, they are great fun to listen to with headphones. All of the stories in the canon have been dramatized. Outside of the production (top-notch), and the acting (crack), I like Williams as Watson, because he is not the buffoon of other versions, he is, as he was in the stories, a very intelligent man, in the presence of genius. All due credit goes to Bert Coules, a writer who suggested that the BBC revisit Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's work.

If I am going over old territory, sorry! For those of you who haven't heard them, you can buy them here:

http://tinyurl.com/y8cjbf9

Amazon does have it as well, but in a box set; the BBC will allow you to buy the individual volumes.

As for me, I will take a look at the Jeremy Brett version; I love recommendations!

My prayers are with you, as always,
Brian Phillips

Harlan - In my pre-coffee, sleep-addled state I read "orthological" as "ornithological" and wondered what in screaming blue hell bird names had to do with anything.

There's never a quality Mexican chocolate to be had when one could use a cup of Café Ellison Diabolique the most...

Dennis J -- Sounds like our comic buys days ran parallel to one another. I gave up in the early 90s, fed up with the endless crossovers, in particular the various Marvel money grabs such as Secret Wars II and Inferno. I did make a point of finishing up Sandman, though. I remember picking up an issue of X-Men several years later and having a massive attack of cognitive dissonance at the realization that Scott Summers was sleeping with Emma Frost.

Harlan--Best of luck with the depression. My problem stem more from anxiety and the resultant stress eating.

Rob--Yeah, there's something about Poe that just grabs you. For me, it that in so many of the stories, what's actually happening isn't nearly as important as what's going on the the protagonist's head. Back in grad school I wrote a paper on The Fall of the House of Usher that argued that the story was basically a failed attempt by the narrator to absolve himself of guilt over Roderick Usher's death.

Ezra--Oh, thank you for the Godzilla haiku site; that is priceless!

A-T C -- Wonderful letter to Magneto. His response, of course, is "That will not happen, because I will keep it from happening."

I'm watching the first season of SNL on DVD. Everyone is *so* freaking young!

I understand, Harlan. I am no stranger to depression. Keep your chin up.

Harlan: Clinical depression is eminently treatable. I'm a member of the Prozac for Lunch Bunch myself and I can attest that properly administered, the medications do work. If you're properly diagnosed, you simply go back to being your old self again.

And now for something that might cheer you up a bit. It seems that archiving digital material, versus ink-and-paper material is a lot more complicated and costly than one might think.

After all, machines break down, they become obsolete, files get harder to retrieve when Microsoft's latest operating system blows farts in the general direction of the previous generation of software and their files, rendering it all deliberately obsolete, as Salman Rushdie and the Smithsonian have discovered.

Here's the link: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/16/books/16archive.html?ref=books

Enjoy!

Chuck

KAFKAHEAD REPLY / SKILLINGSTEAD REPLY / ODDZNENDS
1. I ALWAYS agree with JanInTheEU, but this time I have to say...I kinda like "Kafkahead" as a monicker. At 17, Jan, it seems to me--as someone else noted a moment ago here--it's quite smart and majestic. "K" is okay, too, but well uh less sonorous and emblematic than Kafkahead. In truth, I have no entry in this go-around yet, as a lifelong Kafkahead myself, it maketh me grin. Y'all do as you wish, of course. I just think this kid's peaches. Reminds me of hmmm oh SOMEbody a long long time ago when the world was more pastel and the mind shook less
from the subsonic woof of undigested opinions.

(That was a generality, Jan. Nothing to do with you. Just waxing poetic through a medium that condones no nuance.)

2. Big J: yeah, long time no talk. No excuse. Apparently I lumber under the weight of Clinical Depression. Short attention span, insomnia, days all one non-chrono colloidal span. But the Good Ju-Ju boys will be tossing the bones soon again, and they'll no doubt put me on somedamnthing the name of which will be orthological, and I'll be back in the game.

There was a wearysigh at the end of that one. (I intended no space in that crushword. Not a typo. I'm old, not slovenly.)

3. No odds, no ends. No old business, no new business. Now if the Recording Secretary would read the minutes of the last meeting...

Yr. Pal, Harlan

Saw Alice in Wonderland the other night. Would have been much more spectacular a decade ago, but a lot of the imagery just seemed to have been lifted style-wise from the Lord of the Rings films, which totally stole AIW's thunder. Was talking to a guy today about it. We were talking about Johnny Depp in the so-so Public Enemies. I will watch ANYTHING Depp is in; he's nuts and my only cinema star Achilles Heel. Superb actor. Obviously. But I was talking about PE, and how there is always mischief and madness behind Depp's eyes in anything he does, how he always looks like he knows WAY more than he lets on about what's going on in any performance.

And I realized something fundamental. In Alice in Wonderland Depp's eyes are covered by contact lenses, and it really kills a lot of the depth of his performance, for me at least. It really dehumanizes that most human of actors, renders him cartoonish (as obviously as it meant to to some degree) and inhuman not as watchable as usual. I admit I did love his Scottish accent he kept lapsing into for some reason (maybe a hangover from Finding Neverland - he certainly likes his literary projects!), but it was the best thing about the film for me. And shit, of course, Depp was entertaining enough, but the film was just so weak and boring. Weird how much Anne Hathaway looked like Tim Burton's ex-wife (who plays Vampira in the superlative Ed Wood - can't remember her name, sorry) too. Why wasn't that director born a Dickensian street urchin? He would have loved it;
seems to have some
weird retro
English
fixation
anyway
and
anyway
blah
blah blah
blah blah blah
over and out
about
now.

G.

Reply to Grayson
Hello, Grayson.

I was an avid comics reader in the late 80's and early 90's, then I fell away, as I suspect many people do, as they grow older. Around 2003 I stopped by a comic shop on my lunch hour, for the hell of it, and fell in love again. This time I involved my kids and got them reading them. They loved every second of it. About a year and a half ago I put the brakes on my pull list for exactly the reason you mention - SO damn expensive. I couldn't do it any more, not to mention the 52s, the Countdowns, the Infinite Crises, the Final Crises, the Secret Invasions, the Secret Final World War Countdown Crises, on and on with these damn crossovers. I remember when I got a complete story, cover-to-cover, for 75 cents a pop. At worst there were the three-parters that were still better than much of what's being produced today (The Batman story-arc with the KGBeast comes to mind - still a favorite). I agree with what Mr. Isabella says - the $20 "essential" and "showcase" series are a good bet. Black and white, but you get a good chunk of stories for your money. I do wish the creators would get some of this coin, though.

Thanks, Faisal! This place is a goldmine of information. Ask and ye shall receive.

Grayson...

Marvel and DC and a few other companies pay a decent wage, but it drops down quickly after them. Some companies pay less per page than I got for my first script in 1972. Some only pay on the back end. Worse of all, some comics publishers, even those who pay low rates or on the back end (which usually means nada), want every conceivable ancilliary right to the writer's work.

The good news for you...

There are lots of reasonably priced reprints of classic Marvel, DC, and other comics. The high end would be the full-color Archives or Masterworks editions with run $50-$60. But there are big thick black-and-white collections at under #20 for hundreds of pages of comics...and all sorts of reprints priced between those prices.

The additional good news...

Many libraries now offer comic book collections. I've read a number of new graphic novels and collections via my library.

If you're looking for recommendations, you might want to visit my online column and its archives:

http://www.worldfamouscomics.com/tony

Tony Isabella

I would have liked to have gotten more into comics when I was younger, as well as buy them now. In fact, it's been years since I've bought any. They are just too damn expensive for my tastes. I'm all for writers and artists getting paid a fair wage, but what are prices now? Almost $4.00. ARE writers / artists getting paid a fair wage at DC, Marvel, etc.?

What I really want to buy is reprints of the original Batman, Spider-Man, Avengers, etc. etc. Prices are probably better on the used market.

--Grayson

Is it next week already?
I kept thinking about the HTML Comics site and about the comments from everyone here, and the "What if they can get away with it?" idea behind some of the posts caused me to write my own little take on the situation. Most of it is just summary of what we've already talked about here, but near the end I put on my speculatin' hat and try to guess what future entertainment will look like once its creation is ripped from the hands of paid professionals and dumped into the simple and stupid lap of Joe Six Pack.

Of course, from there it wasn't long before Josh's infamous essay crept back into my noggin' and slapped me with a little inspiration...

http://coqdiddles.blogspot.com/2010/03/httpthieving-bastardscom.html

-Kristian

Dep't of Thoughts and Non-Sequitors


"John". I rather prefer João, to be honest. Don't go Anglifying for this crowd. We're a rather cosmopolitan sort.

"Sorry for the excessive poetic writing of my posts...Just apologizing, in case it gets too irritating."

Speaking for myself, literacy is never too irritating.
__________________________________

Tax appointment last night. Once our accountant stopped alternating between laughter and tears, we got the pleasant news that this year's vacation budget is rather a good one. (More Sheraton than Motel 6, thankfully.)

UN-fortunately, my employer doesn't seem interested in giving me any mre vacation TIME, so I'm still not attending Madcon. I may be the only person here not in attendance, so y'all had better have some good stories to relate.
__________________________________

The reversion to Standard Time has a particular side effect in the Barber household. With the sun now rising an hour later, my weekly "yard scooping" (two big dogs) takes on a new and perilous aspect. It's dark. You have a flashlight and the yard lights are on, but it's dark. Shadows fall across the lawn. Is it? Is it not? Leaves. Bamboo husks. Bougainvillea petals.

Somewhere in the distance, a dog howls.

Well, Jan, if you think my strange nickname might haunt your nightmares, then I believe that to avoid any trauma from it, I'll now be addressed either as John Stone (English for João Pedras), or just K. I don't want you to be harmed by good old Franz's last name. Of course, I only jest.

As for Mr. Ellison:

I did some reading of the essay. It was...strong, but it was also blunt and sticked to the point. From what I can gather, the life as a professional writer must be hell when it comes to compromises and deadlines. I don't want to be in the "dick" position, as good Mr. Olson puts it, so I'll refrain from adding any stories whatsoever.

As a note of interest, seeing that one of your literary idols is the great Borges (the Blind Visionary, as I like to call him), is there any other author that beckons you to their call with magic realism, like the wailing klaxon of a foghorn in the mist of a hazy Pacific bay? One such type of author that I enjoy reading is José Saramago, the Prince of Portuguese Magic Realism. Recently, in school, we read his book "Baltazar and Blimunda". Stunning quality to say the least, with characters so complex and so vivid that it's as if as though Saramago ripped them right out of the biography of a peasant (actually a bizarre concept, the biography of a peasant, considering the conditions people were forced to live in during King John the Fifths reign). But I ramble.

A young fan

K.

P.S: Sorry for the excessive poetic writing of my posts, everyone, but this is a bit of a tick I gathered from reading too much of Lovecraft's and HE's work...Just apologizing, in case it gets too irritating.

The Four Questions with Adam-Troy Castro

I live to serve:

http://www.comicmix.com/news/2010/03/18/the-four-questions-with-adam-troy-castro/

Kafkahead is seventeen years old. How cool is that.

----------

If only I would have kept those comics I stole..lol.

I'm not proud of it; I was a kid at the time.

Comics protected me from the evil world. I sucked my thumb under Spideys noble black web.

-----------

"Avoid all needle drugs, the only dope worth shooting is Richard Nixon."

"Become an internationalist and learn to respect all life. Make war on machines. And in particular the sterile machines of corporate death and the robots that guard them."

" Free speech means the right to shout 'theatre' in a crowded fire."

" When decorum is repression, the only dignity free men have is to speak out."
You measure a democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists."

Abbie Hoffman.

sigh


"

Harlan, sometimes you are literally your own worst critic. K. didn't say your AM was "dated" but "demented", which I think was more of a neutral and safe statement.
--
By the way, I suggest that Kafkahead simply use his first name here (or hatever else he wants) before we get used to the nickname-monstrosity he cooked up for the forums. Now is the best time to change it. Later: not so good. Just a suggestion.

comics resource
When I was the wee-est of lads comics were sold in drug stores in metal racks that spun around, like my father's store. On Wednesdays he worked till 5 and at 4 he would call me to tell me what came in and I'd tell him if I wanted it. He came home from NE Philly on the PA Turnpike so at 5:30 I would walk the 6 blocks to the mailbox so I could ride home that final bit with him. It was there that I first saw The Fantastic Four (#4) and Spiderman #1. So, decades later when I dropped SM over the clone plotline and the FF over the Alicia Masters Storm is a Skrull twist I felt an actual twinge of pain.I wonder if Alan Moore looks at what followed his Swamp Thing and Miracleman and Watchmen the way Oppenheimer looked at that mushroom cloud rising up over the New Mexico desert. If Harlan wants to have Britt Reid kill himself that's fine. It's a short story. Harlan is a genius and the GH ain't Strindberg. (When Gillette asked Doyle if he could marry off Holmes doyle had no problem because that play did not go to the shops and rewrite the original. Harlan's story about Jesus and Prometheus didn't change the Gospels nor Bullfinch, did it ?). But Joe Scotagamotz from Scarsdale can not take over Superman and decide that Superman has been a Martian Robot all along. It was distressing and a little revolting to see classic charecters remade. And why ? Not because, as in Moore's case, because you saw incredible possibilities in correcting an slightly flawed original but because you want to remake John Carter or Hal Jordan into another Punisher or Wolverine and contributing to the masturbatory fantasies of mouth breathers who find a zombie Peter Parker eating Mary Jane's face even remotely entertaining. And if any moral or aesthetic arguments don't sway you think about this- for YEARS L'il Abner was at the center of American culture. Then Abner married Daisy Mae and while there might have been a momentary jump in readers the strip began its decline. When Charles Schulz died Peanuts was still the most popular strip in the world. Why ? Because Charlie Brown NEVER kicked the fucking football ! So, god bless you Harlan, if you HAD written the story and god bless you since you DIDN'T and thanks for giving the interview and letting me get this off my chest. Oh, and tomorrow is my birthday. I try, every year, to read a favorite-Gatsby,Baskervilles,Wells,Chad's Shadows,Kim...this year I'm down to The Demolished Man, A Case of Conscience or Them Bones. Anyone got a readon to prefer one over the other ?

Poe has invariably captivated me, not only by his subjective dreamscapes but the tragedies that followed him through life.

A few years ago, I came up with a character in a modern setting loosely based on Poe, particularly in his clashes with his rather cold-blooded and priggish stepfather.

I want to get back to that at some point.

BBC Documentary is...
The BBC Documentary was entitled Naked Hollywood. If I remember correctly, Harlan appear in the second episode. One episode focused on the rise and fall of the Simpson/Bruckheimer team (this was after Days of Thunder) and the duo prevented the US broadcast of the show as they were unhappy with the way they were portrayed.

A review of the show can be found at:

http://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/21/arts/tv-view-in-naked-hollywood-every-locust-has-his-day.html?pagewanted=1

Kafkahead wrote: "Paying over-seas transportation is like giving a million dollars to a pyromaniac with a distaste for money bills: ridiculous and unnecessary."

Wonderful imagery!

Welcome aboard!


shagin

80's Documentary
Sorry for the second post, but I'm trying to find the title of a documentary from the 80's about Hollywood Screenwriters in which Harlan appeared. I seem to recall that HE was only in the very beginning saying something about taking a ballpeen hammer and smashing your babies or something like that (sorry, it's been 20 years).
Anybody remember it? Name? Filmmakers? Anything? I thought it was done by the BBC but I could be very wrong.

Link to 'I Will Not Read Your Fucking Script'
Reposting the link to Josh's article on VILLAGE VOICE dot com...

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/archives/2009/09/i_will_not_read.php

-Rod

KAFKAHEAD REPLY

1. Do NOT, I say do NOT, let me say it three times--for as we know from Lewis Carroll, "if I say it three times, it is true"--
under no circumstances DO NOT post any original stories (or snippets therefrom) here. Let me add !!!!!!!!!

There is an infinitude of my embargoes to any such behavior in the archive pages here, perhaps dozens over the years, that I'm certain kindly Webderlanders will bring to your attention.

But, in addition to the real and genuine dangerous reasons for me saying absolutely NO NO NO to your doing any such thing, I refer you to whatever FaceYouGoogleTwit site it is that contains an essay by Josh Olson (screenwriter, critic, close friend of mine, visitor here frequently as "Josh," Oscar finalist a year or two ago for the excellent script to HISTORY OF VIOLENCE). The essay is titled "I Will Not Read Your Fucking Script" and I have no idea how many million "hits" it's gotten in less than a year, but you'll find it easily, and you must not only READ IT but, with your obviously honed smarts, you must absorb the hell out of it.

2. AM sounded hammy. Well, the ear hears what it wants to hear. I did that voice recording more than a decade ago, and if it's sounding dated to you, well, lah-dee-dah, no harm and no foul. Yet I offer in response only this: two months ago I was a finalist for the Grammy in the category of Most Outstanding Spoken Word Performance for Children, having read
Lewis Carroll's ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. Apparently the chops aren't entirely gone.

But...well...I don't know what to tell you, kiddo. I've never heard the voice of god, but since I think almost all deities are arrogant, bloviating gas-bags of self-promotion--that is to say, Cosmic Hams--you may be dead-on correct.

When I'm elected god, only then will we know for certain.

Yr. Pal, Harlan

Dear Mr. Ellison

It is with great honor and humility that I accept your welcome wholeheartedly.
To be honest, I'm more at home with Kafka's more anti-bureaucratic works, like "The Trial", than Poe's more ominous prose and poetry("Ligeia", for one, scared the bejeezus out of me. Lovecraft never did that to me, not even with the twist ending of "The Dream Quest to Unknown Kadath").
So, I now ask you, about the computer adventure game that expanded upon "I Have No Mouth": How did it feel like playing AM? AM is notably demented, with his cyber-synapses as twisted as the limb-like roots of a mandragora plant in bloom. But I personally felt (and I say this not to offend you, but only as informed opinion) that you're intonation sometimes sounded a bit hammy. Was this intentional, as a mean to show AM's demented state?
Also, on another unrelated topic, I must say, one day I might just post a link of a story scrap of mine for your enjoyment and criticism. I fully agree on the ideology of the "You're not a writer until a writer tells you you're a writer" sentence. That is the kind of mentality that I require, the kind of dream that I need to accomplish, specially in a country where morons mass together around their televisions to watch soap operas with recycled narratives fetched straight from the Victorian garbage disposal of Romantic Tragedies. I only hope for the day an author such as yourself might say so.

From a young fan

Kafkahead

P.S: Please, please, in the name that is holy here, now, there and before, send a complaint to the publishing house "Europa-América" here in Portugal, so that they may publish your work. Paying over-seas transportation is like giving a million dollars to a pyromaniac with a distaste for money bills: ridiculous and unnecessary.

Last Post - I'm Sorry!
Ok, I'm probably going to burn in the ninth circle of Ellisonian hellfire for daring a third post in one day, but I just came across this little tidbit of very relevant news and thought I'd share. I'm linking to an article (complete with video) about a super-fast book scanning technology that can literally digitize a book as fast as you can casually flip the pages in front of a camera.

From the article: "The system is currently a prototype that occupies an entire lab bench. But in the future, they hope to simplify and miniaturize it for integration into portable devices like a smartphone. So one day you might be able to flip the pages of a book in front of your iPhone and get a digitized version in seconds."

Oooh, so people will one day be able to walk into a bookstore armed with a cellphone and casually steal digital versions of each and every book on the shelf? How exciting!

The address of the story: http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/robotics-software/book-flipping-scanning

Ain't the future grand? Bleh.

-Kristian

(Again, apologies for the excessive posting. I'll fade away into the ether until next week as penance. Please refrain from murder, as I rather like being alive. Thank you.)

Funny Stuff
Sorry for the double post, but I had to share the fact that reading Clifford's comment just made milk shoot out of my nose. Figuratively speaking, of course. Metaphoric milk. The good stuff.*

*Ok, it was Coca-Cola. What can I say? I like the sugar water.

-Kristian

(Self-imposing a temporary exile until Friday)

Downloading From the

James,

You don't even need technological savy to download images from this site. I just did it and I don't know HTML coding or language at all.

If you have a PC, all you have to do is hit the "Print Screen" button on your computer, which will copy an image of the screen to you comupter's clipboard. Then that image can be saved as a jpeg in any image editing software. I just copied an image of HERO ALLIANCE # 4, Page One into MS Paint, edited the image to crop out the unwanted parts, and printed the image.

I imagine that Macs have some key that's similar to a PC's "Print Screen" key; one that will copy the image on your screen to the computer's cache somewhere.

I could -- if I wanted and had the time to spare -- literally download a copy, then print and sell an entire issue of ACTION COMICS # 1 from this site. (Wonder if I could get a million dollars for it?0

So if the "library's" main defense is that their images can't be copied, they're in serious trouble.

Bob

Comic books
Harlan, if you need any more epiphanies, be sure to let us know.
--
Regarding Harlan's latest endeavor, it may help that comic book readers are used to having ongoing stories broken off, if only for a month.
The interview Dennis mentioned reminds me how different American culture is from ours where comics and old radio are concerned. Green Hornet, The Shadow, The Phantom? Hahaha. Mention The Shadow here, and everyone will think you mean the often-repeated Alec Baldwin movie.

Correction
How did I mean to type "one" and get "poe"? Is my keyboard trying to tell me something?

I.need to go read some of the dear Edgar.

Comics Question
As an outsider to the comics business, pleae forgive my ignorance, but is there any major comic publisher that does not buy all rights in perpetuity, but instead follows the more traditional model of book publishing?

How did it come to be that, anytime there's a news story about a writer found starved to death in a cold water walk up with fifteen mayonnaise jars of stale urine under the steel cot they expired upon, it's nearly always "Creator of (name of famous best selling comic book superhero inserted here) and (just about) never a poe time best selling novelist? Those usually go from too much booze and cigarettes, not to mention ex-wives and French food.

Man, that fois gras, it'll make you sh*t like, well, a goose.

OBSERVATION FOR JAN IN THE EU & STEVE PERRY
You two did a very fine Mutt & Jeff. Or "After you" Alphonse--"No, after YOU, mon cher" Gaston. Or Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandermar. Fibber McGee & Molly. Franks an' beans. The Lone Ranger and Tonto. Troilus and Cressida. A to Z.

Something like that.

Jan's heartfelt query, and Steve's really insightful reply, both splendid, were (for me) one of those tiny, unexpected epiphanies, a small window letting in a nice bit of sunshine, that endears y'all, and this site, to me. It gives a sage nod of, "Yeah, sure; that makes complete sense."

Harlan

Regarading http://www.htmlcomics.com/?Alpha=A (comics library)...

I could probably find out where their parents live.

Copyright and Copywrong

Kristian, Matthew and others -- It comes down to one very basic question: What does the owner of the property want done with it?

If the owner of the copyright decides they are good with or even want to encourage free internet distribution that s their choice and the itnernet may consume itself in a distributional orgy of self-satisfaction.

That noted, people who file share music, post comics to their site, steal and use photographs, and publish entire books for download, WITHOUT THE ARTIST'S OR COPYRIGHT HOLDER'S EXPRESS PERMISSION -- are being street-thug pick-pockets with all of the negatives associated with that status.

Except. Except that they see themselves as sort of latter-day Robin Hoods (never having read the book, it would appear), who protect the innocent cosnumers from being forced to *gasp* pay for something they steal.

It's okay the artist makes no money, as long as the listener gets to hear the song. Or see the film. Or read the book.

Thousands of people have lost their jobs. Millions of investors have lost their investment. Thousands of artists can no longer make enough money to entertain full-time, and must take jobs to make ends meet -- effectively removing any future artwork from that artist from widespread public consumption.

Millions of dollars in lost revenue; the poverty of the artist; the disappearance of willing investors; the fundamental collapse of consumer-based artistic production.

But the bone-heads will continue to thrust their fists up OUR backsides, insisting we ought to lay back and enjoy the rape.

Excuse the Double Post
Michael --

I know what copyright means, and I know we aren't talking about fair us. The slippery slope gets into some hair-splitting definitions. What exactly constitutes a "library." Here is what the law says in regard to libraries, to wit:

§ 108. Limitations on exclusive rights: Reproduction by libraries and archives41

(a) Except as otherwise provided in this title and notwithstanding the provisions of section 106, it is not an infringement of copyright for a library or archives, or any of its employees acting within the scope of their employment, to reproduce no more than one copy or phonorecord of a work, except as provided in subsections (b) and (c), or to distribute such copy or phonorecord, under the conditions specified by this section, if —

(Rest of it is here: http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#102) It goes on for a while. And since law is subject to interpretation, this could get ugly.)

Some lawyers live for a chance to make big legal precedent, and this is not so simple a can of worms as I, as a writer, would like to believe. If this site gets library status, it could be a real problem.

Perry

WELCOME TO KAFKAHEAD

Hey, kid, you KNOW my icons were, have been, and remain: Franz Kafka, Edgar Allan Poe and Jorge Luis Borges; and Mark Twain (my religious mentor).

So with great gladness, welcome from me to you, here at the site of All Wisdom and Kindness. You proceed into murky realms with this bunch, K, but on sum they are goodhearted. Their one lingering problem is that they are loath to express their feelings...you may have to draw them out a bit.

Yr. Pal, Harlan

Comics Site
Meh. Looking at the site, it's obvious that these guys don't have very deep pockets - and I doubt they're making much money off of ads by using Google AdSense. (Trust me, I know how much money that service doesn't make web sites.) Does this mean I'm supporting them because they're probably not making much, if any, profit from the comics? Um, no.

It all goes back to the idea that some folks have that "information" should be "free" - but people of that ilk don't often stop to consider that the so-called "information" they're sharing isn't "free" to produce. If all things were even and I could sit down and just will a comic into existence, all drawn and inked and everything, then maybe they would have a point. However, producing a comic costs money - even if the creators aren't being paid. It costs them their time, energy, etc... But I'm preaching to the choir on this point, so I'll move on.

The reason I mention the idea that the site doesn't look particularly well funded is simple: its creators won't be able to afford a lawsuit. Even if they had a valid case with their "library" idea and could somehow wriggle out of the copying notion (a simple screen capture defeats their "code"), it wouldn't really matter if one of the major comics publishers decided to bury them in defense costs - which is how most of these types of suits turn out. They may fight it at first, but once it starts costing them serious money to defend, they'll give up and give in, the site will come down and all will right itself with the world.

Until, of course, the next week, when some new asshat starts up another website...

You know, for all of its glittering promises of hope and unification and the ascendancy of all mankind, the Internet is mostly shit.

Grrr. Argh.
-Kristian

"library"

The way to attack this is simpler then showing intent. Copyright refers to the right to make copies.

A library must purchase materials and then offer those same materials for the public to borrow. Not duplicates that they've manufactured themselves, the originals.

What these clowns did was scan materials and then give away the scans. In other words, they made copies in violation of copyright. There are very specific rules governing copying published materials, even with the most noble of intentions (teachers can copy a few pages of a work for educational purposes).

Don't be taken in by this particular bamboozlement. Once this guy made and distributed copies, he broke the law. If he goes to court he'll be crushed like a bug.

MM

Comics "Library" slippery slope.
The only question that matters is, did they get permission to redistribute the comics. If the answer is no, then all the verbal obfuscation won't help. They're using material they don't have the right to, end of story.

Scary Future is Here
This comics website and claims to be a library is a spooky deal. If you follow the logic offered by the site -- they are a library, you can look but you can't download, no money is exchanging hands, nobody is distributing anything, you can see how a sharp lawyer might be willing to take it on and see if it will play.

Anybody can buy books, comics, newspapers and open a reading room in his house and there's no violation of copyright. You can pass a book you bought around, as long as you don't copy it and send those out.

If you draw the parallels, and if you can make fly the notion that a library doesn't have to be brick-and-board? That's a slippery, nasty slope looming just ahead.

If somebody can figure out how to bypass the security code and steal the work, how is that different from smuggling a library book out of the building against their rules?

Your honor, my client specifically told users not to try to download material, and installed a code to prevent this. If somebody breaks into the downtown library at midnight and steals a pickup truck full of books, is that the library's fault? Of course not -- you prosecute the thief, not the victim.

It seems to be another of those knowledge-must-be-free bushwahs designed to bypass the copyright laws. Of late, said laws have been assaulted regularly and not to good effect.

I'm guessing this one will wind up in front of a judge if the site wants to take a shot at it --and the big comic companies can't stare them down. The way to beat it will have to go to intent -- the security code is a ruse, done so that they can say they wanted to keep the titles in-house, and they knew it would be busted and the way around it posted online. LIke a librarian who says, "Don't steal our books!" but who leaves the door wide open when she goes home.

But I don't like this, not at all.

Perry

I checked out the so called Comic "Library" out of curiousity. Library my foot..this is just plain stealing. It got me thinking, and somehow my imagination took over. How's this for a story?

The bonhead (aka creator of html Comics) is walking down the city streets at night when he takes a wrong turn down a dark alley. As he turns to get back to the street, he hears a sound behind him. He turns back...and his face goes white as a sheet.

Every hero and anti-hero from DC comics is gathered at one end of the alley. One of them steps forward and growls, "Show our stories for free, will you?"

"It took our creators a lot of work to do what they did," whispers another. "Your so-called library ain't nothin' but an excuse not to pay the writer."

As the group inches closer to the guy, one of them pipes up with, "Be thankful it's us and not the characters from 'Dream Corridor.'"

Or something like that.

I have a weird imagination at 9:30 in the morning...

Messer, I got my info from the british media. There may be a barrier of water, which they call a moat. Remember they call a certain brand of food bangers and mash.

------

I used to steal comic books as a kid, but there are other things besides comics. Sorry Tony.

Harlan Interview
Harlan interview about the Phantom and the Green Hornet at Comic Book Resources:

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=25265

San Francisco
Rob- Spencer Tracy is my favorite actor and maybe the best movie actor ever. I like Gable and Jeanette Macdonald (from Philly, by the way-her sister taught piano to my Aunt Jo-still with us at 85 and still feisty) (she looked a lot like Ava Gardner when she was younger and if some one started looking wonky at her in an elevator around the time of the Sinatra divorce she got out before she was attacked) (oh-Nelson Eddy- a dead ringer for the late Robert Palmer). I like 99.9 % of the movie but the final montage bothers me, always has. Not sure why. I'm Catholic but it's not the overt religion. I think it's the faux populism. I'm a fan of Capra but there's a pomt in his films where I don't believe it either. But that's just me and it's still worth seeing if you haven't before...

Tony Isabella have I got the website for you...

http://godzillahaiku.tumblr.com/

Sorry about the recent venting. I am seeking tranquility today by reflecting on the lessons of one of my inspirations who said:

"So many cities, so little atomic breath."

Tony

BRAD BIRD is now working on '1906', a live action about the SF quake, based on a novel bearing the same title.

As always, I'm anxious to see what Bird has in mind. He's great.

Only about two months ago, thanks to Turner, I saw the 1936 movie SAN FRANCISCO with Clark Gable and Jeanette MacDonald. It's really two flicks in one; two-thirds, a musical (obviously, catering to the depression era audiences), with looooong stage numbers, and, with an appropriately abrupt narrative shift, the last section an all-out disaster flick. It's a strange movie, worth my time, as far as I'm concerned, because of the mind-blowing staccato montage sequence depicting the quake - edited by Slavko Vorkapich, who specialized in montage; the special effects by A. Arnold Gillespie and team, was likewise out-of-the-park. But it was the editing that REALLY captivated me. It may well have been a technical landmark. (D.W. Griffith did some second unit work on the movie as well!)

As for the first section, I generally haven't much patience for musicals (in fact, I hate them; I'm fond of a SMALL handful), and this wasn't an exception. BUT...I have to admit, Jeanette MacDonald rates as one of the greatest sopranos I've ever heard. What a brilliant voice! She was incredible!

At any rate, this version whet my appetite for Bird's film. Bird will supposedly cover some issues only recently learned about the actual disaster. (Including political corruption, insurance companies lying about the death toll so that building developers would not leave, and not so surprising evidence of racial discrimination in relief efforts)

Bob Ingersoll's post


Bob was spot-on about that site. The sheer magnitude of what they have posted is obscene. Unimaginable, until now.

Yumpin' Yimminy,
Rick

Re: New On Line Comics Pirate
Actually someone who is more technically savvy about computers than I took about 5 minutes to figure out how to download from that site because the code they use to try to block downloads can easily be figured out by anyone who knows how to build websites. I won't say what it is.

Franks timing, as usual, is quite effable, if not actually peccable.

He laments a US focus on security for their diplomats.

The day after two US diplomats are murdered in Mexico.

By my count, in the last twenty five years, three US embassies have been totally blown away, several others were targeted but the plots failed.

You can have all the "spine" in the world, but it won't stop the blast from killing you if it's easy to park a car bomb next to your office.

London was the scene of several suicide bombings just three or four years ago. This is due diligence.

I am pretty sure the US government pays for the embassy building, not the British. It is not under construction. They plan to break ground in 2012.

Yeah, it is a reflecting pool. The Times of London mockingly caled it a "moat".

Well, I guess we can cross Jan off the guest list for the Peter Graves Virtual Wake. He's still welcome to the After the Wake Taffy Pull and Kaffee Klatsch.

There's no connection to Unk. Like ninety per cent (being generous) of the chit chat in the Pavilion.

I sometimes wonder why Unk is so forgiving, but there you have it, the man is just righteous.

Then again, Peter Graves did act in two episodes of Route 66.

Harlan Ellison wrote one episode of Route 66.

Works for me.

So does fiber.

I still love Red Planet Mars, which I have not seen in fifty years or so. Peter Graves get's Mars on the line, and they re pretty much members of the Moral Mojority, and pretty soon the Russians get religion and peace breaks out worldwide.

Works for me.

Comic Pirates
I love how these guys (and so many other internet thieves) take the work of others and use it to pump up traffic to their sites, meanwhile selling ads and generating revenue. Do these knuckleheads love comics? Maybe. So what? It's the mindset that everything is free for the taking because it CAN be taken so easily.

Excuse the second post.

Bob...

DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Dark Horse, and IDW are all aware of the site. I know that, the nice way having failed, DC is gonna go the hard way on this latest pirate creep.

Tony

NEW ON-LINE PIRATES

Oops,

Sorry about the double post, but I accidentally hit the enter button before I was finished posting. And I think Harlan needs to know about this, so I'm posting again so that he has the information.

Here's my post in its entirety, what I had posted and the rest of what I was going to say...


Harlan,

Maybe you already know about these people but there's a web site called "html COMICS" which has uploaded scans of entire comic book series (not just individual titles, but entires series) to their site.

They claim what they do doesn't infringe upon copyright because, and they're a "library," and that their scans are viewable on their website, but structured so that they cannot be downloaded or saved. "Because download and save of the books is not reasonably possible, the delivery of the material does NOT constitute distribution."

Anyway, one of the series they have available on their site is HARLAN ELLISON'S DREAM CORRIDOR.

So, if Harlan doesn't know about this site already, he needs to, so that he can act.

The URL for html COMICS is:

http://www.htmlcomics.com/?Alpha=A

I'm not even asking for a finder's fee.

Bob Ingersoll

New On-Line Pirates


Harlan,

Maybe you already know about these people but there's a web site called html COMICS which has uploaded scans of entire comic book series (not just individual titles, but entires series) to their site.

They claim what they do doesn't infringe upon copyright because, and they're a "library," and that their scans are viewable on their website, but structured so that they cannot be downloaded or saved. "Because download and save of the books is not reasonably possible, the delivery of the material does NOT constitute distribution."

Anyway, one of the series they have available on their site is

To Jim Thomas and Jerry: Thanks for the links...that awful look she gave the camera after Landau gave her what for...oi!

Rob: I could just see Graves saying those classic lines...and I cracked up just thinking about it! Good memory...

To Clifford Meth: I read your article again...and again...and I wish I could come up with some eloquent post as previous ones have...but all I can come with is...

You ROCK!

There, I've said it.

(You're good lookin' too...nice pic.)

Hi Harlan,

How goes the building of The Keep?

MW

Uh, Frank? There's no moat proposed for the new US Embassy building. There is, however, a reflecting pool. Here's an image of the winning design by Kieran Timberlake. Judge for yourself.

The US has had some ridiculous security measures in place, here in the US and abroad. But no moat. At least not yet.

Be warned: this is a large-ass file.


http://london.usembassy.gov/images/new_embassy/KT-07.jpg

Landau was nicer than Harlan would have been. Too bad that encounter never happened.

----------

England is building this huge monstrosity called a new US Embassey. The fucking thing will cost one billion dollars and will have a motherfucking moat around it, a moat! Security and American paranoia about same in spades. The British media just hate it.

When a pin drops we cower under the desk. We are some cowardly assholes. Americans should get spines.

Appropriate

Jan --

In a lobby full of people who have gone to attend the theater, sometimes the conversations might not be directly connected to the play at hand. You might hear, "Didja hear that so-and-so died?" "No, really?"

Or, "How about them damned Democrats/Republicans/Dodgers/Lakers/Movie Assholes?"

Social gatherings are funny that way. Even electronic ones.

Harlan being a writer who lives in LaLaLand -- or just past the heaviest smog curtain, has dipped his pen into various media inkwells, including television and movies and comics and whatever else; mentioning that an actor of long standing passed away after more than half a century in the biz isn't some kind of communist plot to lead us away from discussions of our Esteemed Host's work and life.

When Gene Barry died, it was mentioned, and the connection was obvious. I don't know if HE knew Graves or not, but I wouldn't be surprised if they had bumped into each other. Not quite the same as the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, but still.

People who are chatting sometimes talk about all kinds of things. It's allowed, and if the host doesn't like it, I can't imagine he would be shy about expressing his opinion.

Perry

Ebooks
Whilst I am all in favour of new techno things generally, I draw the line at Ebooks. At least so far. I carry a book around with me in work all the time. It resides in my train drivers kit bag and it is NOT the fecking rule book.

Now with your average paperback or hard back this is all well and good. The bag gets kicked about, abused, dropped and thrown about a fair bit and the book stays pretty much intact. Not so these fragile Ebooks though. One hard knock or drop and your lovely little reader is little more than electronic spare parts. And a fair amount of broken glass no doubt too.

This is not good in my opinion. Besides, like many book collectors I like to have my books signed by the author. Especially first editions. There is NO first edition with an ebook either.... And if an author signed all over your ebook reader you'd be well miffed. Almost £100 just gone by the vandalism of a well known and famous author! THE OUTRAGE!!!! How dare they??? The ludites!!!

Cliff...

While I am not at liberty to name the Hollywood folks who have contacted me about doing a Black Lightning film, only to learn that they have to deal with DC Comics and said company's insane determination to prevent me from profiting from my creation, a number of them were to Saperstein as the Alps are to a grain of common dirt. In other words, people who really could have made this picture a reality and done so in a manner that would've pleased myself and the character's fans.

I still get about a call a year from Hollywood. One of these days, DC will either do the right thing or put themselves in a position where they can be made to do the right thing.

Adam-Troy: Just read your “Dear Magneto” here: http://www.comicmix.com/news/2010/03/16/how-to-mutate-and-take-over-the-world/?cid=21001#c21001 -- What a fun piece!

Kristian Bland: Thank you. I’ve given CB a pass (big grin). Teased them a bit in today’s column: http://www.comicmix.com/news/2010/03/16/clifford-meth-welcome-to-hollywood-part-deux/ -- but it’s all in good fun.

Jason Sacks: You hear what I just told Kristian? Pals is pals.
Tony I: I hear that Richard Saperstein might be interested in making the Black Lightning film. Would you like his phone # ?

As for you, Harlan: My brother Dave confirmed your suspicions. It *was* two wontons. Dave sends regards and says he’s still available for light work.

Hey there. I'm Kafkahead, I'm 17 and a big big fan of the works of Mr. Ellison. I'm an amateur writer that writes intesively and says "Fuck you" to people who demand freebies, and all because of Harlan.

I first learned about the work of Harlan Ellison when I bought a science fiction anthology called "Masterpieces". It was fine selection of stories, chosen by Orson Scott Card, and divided into three categories: The Golden Age, The New Wave and the Media Generation. And the first story to pop up in the New Wave section was " "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Tick-tock Man". The amusing title and description of Harlan's work was enough to catch my attention and grasp it tightly, like a boa from the jungle. I read it in one sitting. After I was done, I had to lie down...It wasn't "1984" or "Brave New World", but something along the same lines, where the very spirit of rebellion was celebrated as a source of powerful criticism against an opressive system.
No sooner was I thinking to myself "I need more of this stuff" then I managed to scrounge on the internet a PDF version of "I Have No Mouth and I must scream". Again, I read the words so carefully typed by Mr. Ellison, and gaped at the horror of the story, at the atrocities of AM and his five prisoners. This was clearly a man that knew how to move people. So I looked for more. I looked so hard, that I eventually managed to buy from amazon a copy of "Dreams with sharp Teeth". And I learned more about the man than I could ever know in a lifetime of research. It was his "Pay the Writer" rant that moved me the most, hitting that little crack in the ceiling of my mind and shattering it, so that I could begin some actual writing, instead of wishful thinking about writing. Because of him, I'm now working on three different stories and trying to find a magazine that will buy them, so I can have a source of income before I finish my Senior year. And for that, I have to say: thanks, Harlan.

I received two books competing for coverage in my review column. One is a brilliantly witty and brilliantly incisive collection of movie reviews. The other, a nonfiction work by a well-regarded writer of fiction, is (I'm afraid there's no way to sugarcoat this) difficult to regard as anything but clinically insane.

*

The kudos for MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE and AIRPLANE! aside, Peter Graves's best moment on film had to do with a dangling bare lightbulb, in STALAG 17.

*

Martin Landau was wrong and right in that clip. He was wrong because, as the reporter accurately pointed out, she was born in 1972, and cannot be expected to know every tv show (even popular tv shows) that were on before she was born. He was right because she was a reporter, covering the release of the Mission: Impossible movie, and she clearly fell down on the job by not doing minimal background work on the story she'd been assigned to cover.

Wattpad Copyright infringement (My Blue Monkey has a gas starter)
E-mailing report@wattpad.com can get "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" down, according to the site.

Running the cursor over the blue links on this page http://www.wattpad.com/about gives up some of the names of the people running this site.

While they believe that their hearts are in the right place, if http://www.wattpad.com/guidelines is any indication (as I turn to face the choir during this sermon) the aforementioned link is a weak defense against the potential onslaught of copyrighted work that can be posted here. Harlan's brother Ralph's estate would probably be chagrined to find "Invisible Man" on the same site.

The far more difficult to catch are the torrents. Look what is being illegally distributed here:

http://btjunkie.org/torrent/CLASSIC-SF-Harlan-Ellison/37815179bdfda89bb180e6c8dc0b89ceef94c720ada2

or here:

http://www.demonoid.com/files/details/2145891/775222/

*sigh*

I haven't written much, but even I had to chase down a guy that helped himself to an article that I wrote and published it on site without attribution (since corrected). He made it VERY easy for me to find him, even posting on one site something to the effect of "read Brian's article...he knows all about this subject"

And a bit later, I sent money to KICK.

Brian Phillips

Excuse my ignorance, but can someone enlighten me as to the supposed connection between Peter Graves and Harlan Ellison?

And weren't the lines he spoke in Airplane! written by Abrahams and Zucker who are still alive?

We all read the news and don't need every celebrity's demise brought up here.

Mary,

No one could ask for a better eulogy than the one you gave to Peter Graves here, but just to calibrate it to full perfection, Graves was immortalized in Airplane! for lines like:

"Joey...do you like movies about gladiators?"

"Joey...have you ever been to a-a-a Turkish prison?

"Joey...have you ever seen a-a-a grown man naked?"

We don't want to deprive Leslie Nielsen of the lines that ensured HIS immortality:

"I AM serious...and don't call me Shirley."

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

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

Is this legal?

http://www.wattpad.com/107882

And if not, what should be done about it?

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
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.

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
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

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I have nothing to say.

Zack Malatesta

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

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

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
The Jack Kirby estate is finally suing Marvel Comics:

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

To Tony Isabella
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

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 wouldn’t even let me have the foreskin back; claimed they’d mailed it to Los Angeles where it was planted and grew up to be a blogger.

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.

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.
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
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?
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.

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
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

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
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

"face," not "fact."

Mea culpa.

Perry

Incivility

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

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.

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

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.

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
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

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
Miss you, man. Hope all is going well.

PETE'S PHOTO EXPLANATION
"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

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 -
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
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!

Cliff,

Good on ya, friend.

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
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 *

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. Brice’s 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. We’ll 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, I’m fairly nauseous from this development and unable to say more.

You don't mess with Texas.

And you do NOT fuck with New Jersey.

Chuck

My column

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, Hollywood’s 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
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
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

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

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

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

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?

"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

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.

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.

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!

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


shagin

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

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

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

Cut and paste
is not my friend "So here" ought be "were"

Moguls was in India
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.

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,
Now, you are my hero as well.

Pay the Writer

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 years…but 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 I—and how excited was Dave—when 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, reluctantly—because I'm the last guy to go tell teacher—I 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. Eureka—it 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
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
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

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
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
This one's for you, Uncle H

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

Reminder
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

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
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

where in Hell's Teeth are you?

email me

now

peace,
Rick

the new
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

Harlan,

Thanks for the info!

--Grayson

From the Department of None-of-My-Business
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...
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.

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.

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
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.

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

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

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

Heads-up for the LAWYERS!

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
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 plant—a by-product from burning coal for electricity—carries 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!
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
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
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....
..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 ...

The tv show was called "The Conspiracy Zone."

-he

catch up time
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.)

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
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
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
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
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

Sorry.

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.

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...
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 ...
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

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!

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
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.

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.
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 bl