The Atrocity Exhibition [entries|friends|calendar]
Some Kind of Stranger

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Posting About Fiction In Lieu of Actually Reading Any These Days, Etc. [24 Jul 2008|07:15pm]
[ mood | groggy ]
[ music | "Stay Up Late" - Talking Heads ]

( in order: science fiction, spy thrillers, and horror (of-sorts)  )


I love coffee and Kaffeeklatsche, but coffee-table culture is something else.

Those two pieces--one on film and the other on music--express in a far more eloquent way my longstanding opinions about how a lot of contemporary art cinema and alternative music display very little sense of, for want of a better term, danger.

Another reason why I'm happy about those articles has to do with how tired I am to actually explain my own take on these ideas right now.


I don't have a picture of Cole this time, but I do have a cartoon representation of what I've become these days.

(If I had a WordPress account--and I've been planning to sign up for some time now--I'd be able to access this blog entry entitled "Mombies and the Night of the Living Dad.")

The crazy thing is how this exhaustion (still!) feels so exhilarating and enjoyable at the same time. I think a baby's cuteness works like opium on parents, and that's goooood.
2 sticky sticky little things| release the bats

Cole, Vampires, and Spies [20 Jul 2008|11:40pm]
[ mood | awake ]
[ music | "Drama!" by Erasure ]



I know it looks rather amateurish,
but I have neither the technical knowhow
nor the kind of imaging software
that would have resulted in a better picture.


Holy shit, I can't believe I only heard of this now:

( vampires + drama!  )

As weird as it may sound, I think I'll be reading these aloud. In fact, maybe I could read them to Cole, his first bedtime stories, albeit ones he won't understand yet.
8 sticky sticky little things| release the bats

A Quiet Moment in a Restful Sunday [13 Jul 2008|04:24pm]
[ mood | relaxed ]
[ music | "A Growing Boy Needs His Lunch" by the Dead Kennedys ]

It's shocking how large a baby can grow in barely a couple of weeks:



I'm sorry, I couldn't resist taking a/that shot, even if the effect is somewhat spoiled by the way his hands stick up in his favorite sleeping pose.

Look, little boys are usually early bloomers when it comes to mischief and playing practical jokes on their fathers, and I just wanted to take what little opportunity I have left to do something like this. Call it a preemptive strike in making fun.

(Or you may say that I shot first, which makes Cole Greedo and me Han Solo. That's the way it happened after all, Special Editions be damned. Someday soon, my boy will call me by a far worse name than Greedo. Ah, but I'm now rambling...so sorry.)


Anyway, thank you so much for the comments, congratulations, and well-wishes many of you left in the previous entry.


For better or for worse, I'm probably going to keep posting more pictures and/or videos of Cole as time goes by, but just to be consistent with how I've been using this LJ:

  1. Aside from various how-to-swaddle-a-baby instructional clips, I've been using YouTube to repeatedly watch the teaser for Quantum of Solace.

  2. I'm still missing Uncle Zip's Window, but I'm so utterly pleased that the Ambiente Hotel is open for business. In other words: M. John Harrison is blogging again!

  3. April is as much a fan as I am, so this never happens between us. Still funny though.
16 sticky sticky little things| release the bats

07.07.008 [07 Jul 2008|09:57pm]
[ mood | paternal ]
[ music | "Love Plus One" by Haircut 100 ]

As April and I celebrate our first wedding anniversary today, we look back fondly on that special date of 07.07.007 and everything that followed. In particular, we think about '007 turning into '008, about this very special plus-one:



So yes, it's a great day (a great life!). No fancy dinners for April and I, no special events. We're just at home, eating leftovers and indulging in our final (for now) weekly fix. But above all, we're just sharing our love with Cole Anderson Rojales Ty...

...who arrived on our planet last Wednesday, 02 July 2008. He's 6.13 pounds and 19.4 inches of absolute cuteness. (And oh yes, he's rather loud, too.)

You'll see from the links at the bottom that he often sports a rather grim and serious facial expression, but I'm quite sure he'll soon run through the entire spectrum of emotional experience, taking April and I along, too.

Anyway, more details to follow about what it was like in the hospital, but for now:

Welcome to the world, little buddy, and may the rest of the world--at least those who read this--welcome you as well.
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Coming Soon [29 Jun 2008|01:52am]
[ mood | excited ]
[ music | "July, July!" by the Decemberists ]

"There's an 85% chance you'll be heading straight to the hospital after our appointment on Tuesday afternoon. Expect your son to be born anytime from Tuesday night to Thursday morning."

Actually, to be honest, when our doctor told April that today, her tone of voice wasn't quite so sober. Neither was the way April and I reacted to the news.

(I think it's more accurate to use "Woohoo!" to describe the mood at that moment, which my wife and I still feel right now, of course.)


Although I still manage to escape being crushed by the 9-to-5 grind, it has been rather exhausting for me recently, since I no longer have the free days I used to enjoy.

I've been spoiled by eight years of working no more than four days a week, it seems. Already three weeks into the new semester, and I'm still having a tough time adjusting to a schedule that now demands I step out of the house six times a week.

This tiring schedule is also pre-Cole, of course, and I'm almost afraid to imagine how that will change things. But what my wife just told me right now seems to make some sense to me: "I think Cole will give you an energy boost, Andrew."

Even if my wife and I turn out to be wrong about that, and my life becomes the extreme sport it's threatening to become, it ultimately doesn't really matter in the long run.

He's my son. And he'll be here soon. And I, for one, welcome our new infant overlord.
7 sticky sticky little things| release the bats

A Chuckle and a Wow + Some Baby Updates [22 Jun 2008|10:26pm]
[ mood | impatient ]
[ music | something from the early Bad Brains albums ]

My leisure reading these days--what little of it I still do--have been more spy fiction than horror, but I still got a kick when this turned up in my inbox last night:



( Baby Updates  )


On a wholly unrelated note, if I wasn't too busy and/or lazy, I'd go through all the LJ entries where I mention Penguin Books and tag them properly. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Penguin is the major publisher with marketing practices that wow me...

...such as these wonderful ads.
6 sticky sticky little things| release the bats

You Could Have Spared Us This Time [13 Jun 2008|08:14pm]
[ mood | terrified ]
[ music | nothing at all...don't want to risk calling them close ]

It's only been four days since the new semester began, but I've been a bit tired since Day 2, which felt like Week 2 to me. Still, it wasn't the bad kind of tired. On the contrary, it was the rather satisfying exhaustion that comes when I immerse myself into work I truly love doing.

That said, I wish I had a bit more energy today. After all, Cole will be born sometime really really soon--as early as next week, or so our doctor says. April and I are almost at the point where we needed to bite down on our knuckles just to curb our excitement about our son.


Ah, dammit: "bite down." I could of course delete and re-write whatever I type in this entry, but just to keep ole Sigmund happy--in case he comes back today--let that Freudian slip stand.

Denial is close to ignorance, I think, both bearing the promise of bliss. If I try to be pleasant about things, hiding the way I really feel today, then maybe I will end up truly okay. And so will the rest of the world, I hope, the world into which April and I are bringing our little boy.

Maybe. Yeah, I can hope. But that comet. "Eccentric comet"? More like a fucking catastrophic comet, paying us another visit after what happened last year. Damn you, Comet GR-Z. Or damn you back, since you've already damned us first, it seems.

( Oh God, Not Again  )

If you're reading this right now, you are safe for the moment.

If you're reading this right now, it means that you are ensconced somewhere with the power still on, with an Internet connection still linking you to the rest of this insane world.

If you're reading this right now, it means you're currently enjoying the luxury of not running for your life at the moment, and that's good. The only thing you have to worry about is the fear of how things are going to end this time.

I wish you all the best. Try to hold on to what you know of your life lest they come upon you, rotting flesh and gnashing teeth, trying to turn your life into something else that's only a cruel mockery of it.


Keep yourself updated, while we all wait to find out whether or not we survivors are the lucky ones. I suspect the answer to that question is forthcoming, though I have absolutely no idea what it may be.

Signing off. I'm spending time with April now, whatever we have left. The life she's carrying, representing the lives we will share with each other, is the only life that fills me with hope today.

8 sticky sticky little things| release the bats

Resisting This Meme Was Futile [07 Jun 2008|04:11pm]
[ mood | crazy ]
[ music | "Sister Ray" (I'm already practicing) ]

You are in a mall when the zombies attack. You have:

  1. one weapon (real or fictional; assume endless ammo, if applicable)

  2. one song blasting on the speakers

  3. one famous person (real or fictional) to fight alongside you



My answers:

  1. A katana katamari.

  2. "Sister Ray" (on endless repeat)

  3. April called dibs on Ash, and I considered Lionel or Father McGruder.

    April would have thrown me to the shambling hordes if I said Buffy Summers...unless I give her Spike.

    I stopped short from picking Jason Bourne: I'd rather he was my actual weapon than my sidekick.

    In the end, I guess I'll go with Simon Pegg: either as Shaun or Nicholas Angel.


Yours? Leave a comment or a link to your entry.
8 sticky sticky little things| release the bats

Mid-Week Spew [28 May 2008|10:43am]
[ mood | awake ]
[ music | something by Heaven 17 ]

Viral videos can be hit or miss, but here are a couple that are worth watching (or re-watching if you've already seen them from many other blogs out there):


Thanks to [info]carbocisteine for pointing me to GraphJam: Pop Culture for People in Cubicles. Funnily enough, I just visited the new location for my Department yesterday with April and was able to glance at my cubicle ("Big enough for a crib!" I exclaimed at first sight).

Anyway, lots of neat stuff on that site, but if you're curious, the first graphs I was sent were on the likelihood of birds suddenly appearing and moving objects to watch out for when crossing the road with Morrissey.

( Guillermo del Toro, technothriller nostalgia, Christianity in unlikely places, neat artwork, sex and technology, the cute side of Japanese poltics, etc.  )
2 sticky sticky little things| release the bats

Six Items in Search of a Reader [21 May 2008|10:15am]
[ mood | awake ]
[ music | see LJ-cut text ]

A few recent points of interest:

Two on book design, inner and outer.
Two on "literary horror," including some absolutely! wonderful! news!
Two bits that respectively killed my brain and brought it back to life.
( Itchy finger finger trigger trigger click click...click-click-click!  )
release the bats

Yet Another Brainspew Entry [20 May 2008|10:07am]
[ mood | awake ]
[ music | something from the first Human League album ]

This Web page was open on my wife's browser a few days ago. My excitement over these sights borders on the erotic, just as it does with these steampunk watches.


( Quotes, David Byrne's "Marcos Musical," toys for Cole and I, creepy photography, baby news, theme songs from old anime, and an anthology I dug up from my old room...  )

Not Quite About Worldbuilding

I'm bummed that M. John Harrison's blog is gone now. Uncle Zip's Window was one of my favorite places to visit on the Web; even after he stopped updating it, I kept revisiting anyway. Sadly, it's gone, all gone.

I only discovered its closure now, because I wanted to re-read the highly contentious and insightful series of entries Harrison wrote about world-building. Anyway, here's an amusing essay by Tim Pratt, which is NOT really about the issues Harrison raised, despite its title:
4 sticky sticky little things| release the bats

Thomas Ligotti [16 May 2008|11:02am]
[ mood | Ligotti-esque ]
[ music | "I Have a Special Plan for This World" by Current 93 ]

Two new Ligotti mass-market releases this year, and the covers are fantastic!

Virgin Books UK is releasing his most recent collection on paperback this July, and September brings the second of The Nightmare Factory graphic novels released by Fox Atomic.

([info]pgmcc, I'm not sure you're going to buy the latter, given how disappointed you were with the first volume...but if there are still going to be introductions by Ligotti for each adaptation, would that tickle your collector's fancy?)

( What? Oh, the covers!  )


I thought it was rather strange that, as much as I'm enjoying Gene Wolfe these days, I had a sudden urge to re-read Thomas Ligotti's Sideshow, and Other Stories a few days ago.

( Quotes...  )

"There is something in all of us that has always been dead," I said. "If only because we know that eventually we will die. All of us except the smallest children."
8 sticky sticky little things| release the bats

Our Science-Fiction World [16 May 2008|09:51am]
[ mood | SF-nerdy ]
[ music | Hard-Boiled's film score playing in my head ]

The recent announcement from the Vatican about how believing in extra-terrestrial life and in God aren't contradictory has made the rounds here and there, but I think I can link to an article about it too, given my recent mentions of Jesuits and science fiction.


While not as big as the Catholic Church, the Church of Jediism (390,000 believers in the UK alone!) has recently appeared in the news too, thanks to "Darth Vader"'s drunken rampage. The Force was strong for this Sith Lord though, and his sentence was suspended.


Finally, the Kepler Project caught my attention when I first came across it, and so April, Cole, and I are now the Space Family Ty.

( At least in name.  )

And at the risk of confusing the original "in-space" Robinsons with the other "in-space" Robinsons, I think the family really needs a robot now. Which one, though? Suggestions in the comments are most welcome.

(ASIDE: What is it with Robinsons and SF? From Switzerland to spaaace!)

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Random Blabbity for Today [14 May 2008|03:39pm]
[ mood | bouncy ]
[ music | songs from The Jam's (Compact) Snap! ]

Crazy thing that came to mind while I was listening to the Jam a few mornings ago:

How does Paul Weller protest against war?
By eatin' rifles. (More information.)


One of the many things April and I plan to buy for Cole someday is this:


Graham Sleight's "Storying Genres" provides a useful enumeration of some of the ways by which genres--specifically science fiction--are defined.

Gary K. Wolfe's "Framing the Unframeable" asks and answers the question, "What does the fantastic bring to the storying of lives?"

(In the process, Wolfe discusses writers like Elizabeth Hand and Peter Straub and presents a reading of "The Honeyed Knot" by Jeffrey ([info]14theditch) Ford, one of my favorite short stories.)


Speaking of short stories:
"G-O-O-D-B-Y-E" by Nick ([info]nihilistic_kid) Mamatas.

(Let me also mention that when I think of Move Under Ground's title, I usually start humming another Jam song.)


I wish I could also link to "Doing the Unstuck" by Paul ([info]pgdf) Di Filippo (previously mentioned), but I only managed to access it myself on campus through EBSCOhost.

As a Cure fan, I enjoyed it a great deal, and it's also nice to know that the main character was based on Jeff VanderMeer's stepdaughter.


You know what they say about truth and fiction and their comparative strangeness? "A Peculiar Day in the Philippines" is an appropriate title for an essay that demonstrates the truth behind that adage.
release the bats

Today's Magnificent Seven [09 May 2008|02:39pm]
[ mood | link-crazy ]
[ music | songs by New Model Army ]

  1. Iron Man was a good film, but how about Iron Sky? It's a film that oozes geekycool, with its look, its plot, and its Creative Commons license.


  2. Nazis in spaaace aren't as fascinating to me as Jesuits in spaaace, and I wish I found about Brother Guy before I posted that entry. (He didn't like The Sparrow though.)


  3. "English Breakfast tea. Shaken not stirred."


  4. Wry Baby has all sorts of neat stuff to help parents "raise funny people." One of these is a book called Safe Baby Handling Tips, which is either hilarious or sick. Okay, it's both.


  5. A fine artistic tribute to Jean-Luc Godard's Alphaville...in pen, ink, and watercolor!


  6. iGoogle just became hotter and cooler, because the Steampunk theme is both. 


  7. And okay, I'll give in to the hype and link to Man of Iron, but you have to promise to check out the other projects by the extremely talented Sillof.

And now that I've posted these URLs, it's time go back to Urth.
10 sticky sticky little things| release the bats

Early May Brainspew [08 May 2008|10:54am]
[ mood | awake ]
[ music | Love Like Model Army ]

News Flash! Three unrelated links led me to some strange bits of news involving teachers with employment problems:

Ectoplasmosis! has posted a blog entry about a really odd lawsuit that would leave a more bitter taste in my mouth had it not been such a story of absurdity and hilarity.

Similarly, while a teacher being fired is hardly ever good news--even when it's deserved--being sacked for wizardry is rather funny, too. Whattacrazyworld.

(This one isn't funny at all, though.)


( Superhero Fun, Rock Music, Gaming, Reading  )


While I depend a lot on Wikipedia given its charms, I don't really like linking to its articles here, but I'll make an exception now, because the one on author John Ajvide Lindqvist is the search result that really got me interested in this writer. Zombies! Vampires! Morrissey!


Next time: more baby news! (Around) seven more weeks to go!
4 sticky sticky little things| release the bats

Geekery: Math and Gaming [01 May 2008|12:39am]
[ mood | nerdy ]
[ music | "Kali-Fornia Über Alles 21st Century" by Jello Biafra with the Melvins ]

After screening Good Will Hunting for class the other day, I ended up thinking about math again, wishing I was good at it while pondering my odd fascination with mathematicians.

Yesterday, I found out about a thriller called Fermat's Room, which caught my attention with its trailer on YouTube, its write-up for the Tribeca Film Festival, and its official Web site.

(While many people I know harbor a desire to murder mathematicians and so might watch the film from that perspective, I prefer to see this as a literalization of my occasional impression of math being out to kill me.)

Anyway, that last link is in Spanish, but there's a fun little gimmick that literally pops up as you go through it, involving a Palm PDA (whee!) you have to solve math problems on, or else...



A couple of recent Spanish genre films that interest me, although sin elementos matemáticos, are The Orphanage and [●REC]. That's Babelfish Spanish, by the way, so pardon all error.

(The link for the latter is a review since its official sites are in French and in German.)


And now for something completely different: I'm hardly a serious gamer, but I've been having fun with PMOG and might try out Creationia for my Palm.

ADDENDUM: Although those not signed up on PMOG cannot play this as a mission, do check out the "mission lightposts" section of the page for links to other Web-based games.
12 sticky sticky little things| release the bats

Cool Covers, Cole's Clothing, Cute Crapping [24 Apr 2008|10:57am]
[ mood | giggly ]
[ music | the songs from the Shimajiro videos ]

If we choose to judge books by their covers, Gary McMahon's latest releases are probably going to be fantastic. Not to say they won't be, of course, but so far, it's just the art I already love:

Here's the cover of his collection How to Make Monsters, and here's the "art from the outer surface of the book" of his novel Rain Dogs.


Speaking of covers, although I don't really like the ones for the titles released so far by Permuted Press, their upcoming anthology called Robots Beyond is going to look fantastic.


Speaking of robots, my wife and I bought Cole a robot T-shirt that had me giggling at the shop when I saw it last week:

( domo arigato...  )

Speaking of cute, April and I are going to have to do some toilet-training at some point. I wonder whether it would be a good idea for the two of us to use "the Shimajiro method" for home use and for public toilets.

Another option could be "the Pantsu Pankurou system." Decisions, decisions!

6 sticky sticky little things| release the bats

You Just Haven't Urned It Yet, Baby [23 Apr 2008|11:14am]
[ mood | jubilant ]
[ music | the obvious Smiths song ]

One week left in the wonderfully-named month of April, and no entries for (Inter)National Poetry Month yet, unlike last year's early celebration.

Ironically, especially given today's previous entry, I'm all out of words and so will just let you click on the following:

  1. "Ode on a Grecian Urn" by John Keats 

  2. the chapter of the same title from A. S. Byatt's The Virgin in the Garden

Speaking of poetry, I'm currently enjoying the Subterranean reissue of [info]greygirlbeast's Tales of Pain and Wonder that finally showed up a few days ago.

This is the second of my (at least) five Major Reading Moments for 2008. At the moment, I can't say more than what Brian Hodge already said about the original Gauntlet Press edition, which you can read at the bottom of this page.


Finally, the last few days have been a wonderful celebration of April's birthday (April 20, FYI).

I wish I could talk about how giddy I felt throwing her a surprise party that seems to me the most successful surprise party ever, as well as the many great meals we had, but even with this, I am at a losfer words. So I'll just end by saying I'm glad you had a...

...HAPPY BIRTHDAY, APRIL!
I LOVE YOU.

And in case you're wondering, the Subject of this entry has nothing at all to do with April. She's certainly urned it.
2 sticky sticky little things| release the bats

Garbage Out [23 Apr 2008|10:28am]
[ mood | braincrazy ]
[ music | "The Sprawl" by Sonic Youth ]

For all the dormancy this NotQuiteLiveJournal has been demonstrating, I find myself surprised at moments like this when I realize how it remains Very Important to me. At the very least, I need an outlet for all the links I come across and collect in magpie fashion.

Not everything is of interest to everyone else, of course, but I'd like to come up with a set of links like this one, where I clicked on pretty much everything. (That said, I recommend the NSFW links with some qualification, even though I did check them out myself.)

( Visual Design, Arts and Crafts, Corporate Logos, Thrillers, Etc.  )


K-Punk is one of my favorite brain-food blogs, along with Steven Shaviro's. Check out the highly insightful commentary on the reissue of Gary Numan's Replicas and on the Kafka-esque world of call centers.

And speaking of Shaviro, his recent entry entitled "Some thoughts on 'character'" is just as fascinating and well worth reading by both readers and writers.


For dessert after a link-heavy meal: something light but tasty like this utterly hilarious list of writing prompts. (I just love McSweeney's Internet Tendency.)
8 sticky sticky little things| release the bats

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