Reading: ALTERNATE WORLDCONS and AGAIN, ALTERNATE WORLDCONS edited by Mike Resnick
Music: Misc. Lou Reed and The Velvet Underground
TV/Movie: The Ring
Link o' the Day: Noreascon Four

Well a pretty busy weekend comes to a close. Astute readers will note that I've not posted since Thursday. I've now sent off the SFWA Bulletin to the editor, and the Hollywood book to its editor. I still have one other project due, but I should be able to knock that out over the next day or two easily.

Housework hasn't gone as productive as I'd hoped, but I do have the rest of this week to catch up on that. Mostly I wanted to clean up the Desk of Despair in the Bedroom of Bedlam, the Light Table of Corruption, and the Closets of Doom and Pain. Oh, and the Bathroom Closet of Shibiloth (what I like to call the Widowmaker). Eventually I'll have to tackle the Spare Room of Utter and Complete Madness, but not until I clean out the Oven of 'orror.

This is life in the Apartment of Absolute Chaos. Poor Pretty Maggie. She doesn't know what she's getting into--at least until we move to the New Apartment of Peace and Calm.

* * *
I broke down and watched The Ring this weekend. Creeeeeeepy! What grabbed me was the comparison to The Sixth Sense. Okay, it definitely has some twists and turns, unexpected and horrifying. Definitely some disturbing imagery in play. I don't recommend it to the easily-spooked, but if you like to feel tense and on-edge for two hours, check it out. And yes, I'll even call it post-modern. It's about a video that kills. There's something eerie about watching a movie about something that kills while you're watching it.... or words to that effect.

* * *
Last night while working, I happened to have had the TV on and noticed something called Night of Too Many Stars. It was an all-star comedy benefit for autism. I love comedy, so I turned the sound up while I was working. It was okay--Jack Black's bit being the funniest. But what killed me was the musical number at the end. Lou Reed came out to do "Walk on the Wild Side" with other famous musicians. Instead he got Adam Sandler, Conan O'Brien, Jack Black, Dana Carvey, and Jimmy Fallon. I never saw a man look quite so ready to knife five comedians before on stage. (Offstage, this happens all the time, but poor Lou just looked like all he wanted in the world was for pillars of flame to consume his "band mates.")

In his honor, I played Velvet Underground for the rest of the night.

* * *
Reading has been pretty chaotic. A little here, a little there. My bus-reading lately has been ALTERNATE WORLDCONS and AGAIN, ALTERNATE WORLDCONS edited by Mike Resnick in preparation for my upcoming Torcon attendance. They're tell the stories of Worldcons that never were... technically I suppose this makes it recursive science fiction as well. Huh, the theme of the week. If you've been to a con, chances are someone who _ran_ one of those cons wrote one of the stories. I recommend it for folks who like to read fiction about fandom. Or think they _might_ like to read fiction about fandom.

And in the bathroom, I've been keeping the immense PITCS book (available from NESFA). The Proceedings for Twentieth Century Studies was the SFWA Forum before there was an SFWA. Edited and run by Thoedore Coggeswell, it has letters from all sorts of Big Names from Way Back. If you're interested in the history of science fiction, it's well-worth a look.

* * *
And today's link takes you to the site of the 2004 Worldcon, Noreascon Four in nice, nearby, convenient Boston! If it weren't for the fact that 50% of a good worldcon takes place at night, I'd save on the room and commute. Join now!

Cheers!