Not a Blog

More Death

September 12, 2020 at 2:07 pm
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I am late to post about this, but I was very saddened by the news of a couple recent deaths.

The world of television and film lost a titan with the passing of Dame Diana Rigg.   Such an amazing talent.   It was such an honor to have her on GAME OF THRONES as the Queen of Thorns.  I only had the chance to meet her once, when I visited the set the first year she was on the show.   As brief as that meeting was, I count that a rare privilege.  A lovely lady.   As great as she was as Olenna Tyrell, for me… and for most every other member of my generation… she will always remain Emma Peel.

 

I was also moved by the death of Tom Seaver — Tom Terrific, the Franchise, the Hall of Fame pitcher for the Amazin’ Mets who led them to their World Series Championship in 1969.   I never met Seaver at all, but of course I was a fan.   I do not follow Major League Baseball as much as I did when I was younger, but as a kid in Jersey I was a Brooklyn Dodgers fan, and had my heart ripped out when Da Bums moved to LA.   So of course I became a Mets fan when they began play in 1962 as an expansion team.   I suffered through all the years of losing — as lovable as they were, they were still losers — and the turnaround led by Seaver and Koosman and the rest of the Amazin’s in ’69 was nothing short of miraculous.

It is odd, when you think of it, how caught up a sports fan can get in the fortunes of their team… but the emotions are real.   That World Series victory made me so very very happy, that even now half a century later I still smile when I recall it.

And in these dark days, we need every smile.

Goodbye, Tom.  Goodbye, Diana.  Rest in peace.

Current Mood: sad sad

C-C-Claudius, aka I, CLAVDIVS

September 10, 2020 at 8:16 am
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The BBC made their adaptation of I, CLAUDIUS — based on the classic novels by Robert Graves (I, CLAUDIUS and CLAUDIUS THE GOD), which were in turn based on the histories of Suetonius — in 1976, but I did not encounter them until a few years later, when PBS picked them up and ran them (in a somewhat censored form, to shield Americans from seeing nipples) in the USA.  I remember, I was still living in Dubuque, Iowa at the time, teaching college.   I loved the series then, and I love it now.   I have probably watched it a dozen times in the years since.   When it was rerun on TV at first, then later on VHS tape, and most recently on DVD.

I just finished watching it again.  Up in my mountain cabin, I discovered that my assistant had never seen the series, so of course I had to break it out and show it to her.   It is just as brilliant as I recall.   I am pleased to say my assistant, seeing it for the first time, loved it just as I did, seeing it for the… I don’t know, the tenth time?  Twentieth?  I have not kept count.

This despite the fact that the budget for BBC drama in the 70s was… let us say… not large.   There are no special effects here.   No battles.   No exteriors, in fact.   It was all shot on a sound stage, and most of it takes place in one or two rooms, repeatedly redressed.   When these Romans go to the arena for a gladiatorial show, you do not so much as glimpse a gladiator, you just see the actors sitting watching carnage offstage.   This is not HBO’s ROME nor even SPARTACUS (both great shows in their own right).  I, CLAUDIUS is more akin to a filmed stage play.   I think the craft services budget on any HBO series is probably ten times what the BBC spent on the entire thirteen episodes.

And you know what?  IT DOES NOT MATTER.   If you have great writing and great acting, that is really all you need.   And I, CLAUDIUS had that in spades.  A single writer, Jack Pulman, scripted all thirteen episodes.   Pulman is long deceased, I fear, which I regret.  I would have considered it an honor to meet him and shake his hand.   His dialogue sparkles from beginning to end, with so many unforgettable lines… and throughout he remains true to the genius of Robert Graves and his great novels.

And the acting here is equal to the brilliance of the writing.   This was the series that made Derek Jacobi a star, and rightly so, but the supporting cast around him was sensational as well.   Sian Phillips as Livia, Brian Blessed as Augustus, John Hurt as Caligula, the criminally underappreciated George Baker as Tiberius, Patrick Stewart (with hair!) as Sejanus, and more, and more, and more…. there’s not a false note here.   They were all great.

And yes, from time to time a marble pillar ripples when someone passes, revealing itself to be painted canvas, but so what?   If you are like me, you are too deeply involved with the characters to notice or care.

If you have never seen I, CLAUDIUS, you owe it to yourself to have a look (though be warned, this a dark show, and there is lots of violence and sex, especially by the standards of 1976).  You should read the novels too, they are terrific.  And then give thanks you do not live in ancient Rome.

Even now, deep in the Second Golden Age of television, I would rank I, CLAUDIUS as one of the greatest television series ever made.   Certainly in the top ten.  Probably in the top five.

Current Mood: satisfied satisfied

Emerging From Hyperspace

September 7, 2020 at 11:00 am
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Those electronic tonalities you hear are the United Planets cruise c-57-D emerging from hyperspace at  to investigate the fate of the Bellerophon expedition.  The Bellerophon was supposed to be exploring the fourth planet of the great main sequence star Altair, but we have it on good authority that they actually ended up at Beastly Books on Montezuma Street in Santa Fe, NM, Land of Enchantment.

We are sure that Dr. Morbius , his lovely daughter Altaira, and Robby the Robot will make them welcome.

Come on by Beastly Books, have a coffee, buy a book or three, and say hi to Commander Adams, Doc, and Altaira.   But please don’t feed the Monsters from the Id.

Current Mood: bouncy bouncy

The Martians Are Here

September 7, 2020 at 10:30 am
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The world is in trouble.

As if all our other woes were not enough, a huge smoking meteor came crashing down from space a few days ago and landed in the midst of Santa Fe’s historic Railyard District, between the Jean Cocteau Cinema and the Santa Fe Southern Railroad.   When some of my staff went to investigate the crater it left, waving a white flag and chanting “Welcome to the Land of Enchantment,” a heat ray on a long neck emerged and vaporized them.

And then THIS emerged from the crater, making ominous noses and glowing.

The Martians are here, the Martians are here..

You can see their war machine yourself at Beastly Books.

Quick, someone, sneeze on them!  It’s our only hope!

Current Mood: geeky geeky

Stuff to Watch

September 4, 2020 at 10:00 am
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I write most days, sometimes into the evenings.

At night, after supper, I read, watch television, or screen movies (I used to love going to the movies, since the best place to see a film is in a theatre with an audience around you, but the pandemic has put an end to that for the nonce).

A couple of things I have really enjoyed lately…

Parris and I binged on HBO’s adaptation of Philip Pullman’s HIS DARK MATERIALS when I was back in Santa Fe, and loved it.   Gorgeous production, great cast (loved Lin-Manuel as the aeronaut), and SO much better than the feature film.   Plus armored bears.   Can’t go wrong with armored bears.  The world needs more armored bears.    All the daemons are cool too.   (Hate that damn monkey).   If you’re a Pullman fan, give this a look.  And if you’re not, watch it anyway, it may make you a Pullman fan.

And for something completely different, there’s BLINDED BY THE LIGHT, a lovely little feel-good film (based on a true story) about a Pakistani kid in Luton, England who becomes the world’s biggest Bruce Springsteen fan.   I think I’ve seen this one four times already.  Every time the shift changes and a new minion arrives at my fortress of solitude, I watch it again so they can see it.   When I am feeling down, this one brings me back up.   The Boss knows all the secrets of life… but, hey, he’s from Jersey!   The music canNOT be beat, and I like some of the choices the filmmakers made, like the lyrics coming up on screen.   With rare exceptions, I am not usually a big fan of musicals… but this one rocks.  (If it even counts as a musical).

 

Current Mood: geeky geeky

DEALER’S CHOICE Returns

September 1, 2020 at 9:38 am
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The last days of the Rox are at hand (again).   Bloat’s dream of a joker homeland on Ellis Island faces its ultimate test.

DEALER’S CHOICE was the eleventh volume in the original run of Wild Cards from Bantam Books, and the third and concluding volume in the Rox Triad.   This one is a fully interwoven mosaic novel, written by Stephen Leigh, Walter Jon Williams, John Jos. Miller, the late great Edward Bryant, and George R.R. Martin, action from start to finish. Out of print for more than twenty-five years, it returns today in a new trade paperback edition from our friends at Tor, with spectacular new cover art from Michael Komarck (who really should be contending for Hugos).

Bloat, the governor of the Rox, occupies center stage this time around, as he and his strange community of jokers and jumpers fight for survival.  Starring with him are fan favorites Modular Man, Carnifex, Wyungare, and the Great and Powerful Turtle.  Co-stars and supporting players include Sewer Jack, Legion, Herne the Huntsman, Cameo, Mr. Nobody, Elephant Girl, Mistral and Cyclone, the bodysnatcher, Detroit Steel, Snotman (the REFLECTOR, dammit!) and many many more.

Copies should be available at any good bookshop still open, or from your favorite on-line bookseller.

Current Mood: satisfied satisfied

Life After Death

August 26, 2020 at 9:01 am
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Even the greatest of minds may disagree about what to do with those who came before us, fallible fellows all.

The Bard of Avon put the truth in the mouth of Mark Antony.   That was the way the world worked in the late Roman Republic when JULIUS CAESAR was set, that was the way the world worked in Elizabethan England when the play was written, and that, alas, is the way the world seems to work now, despite the passage of centuries.  Shakespeare was a pretty smart fellow.   He told it like it is.

Gandhi was an idealist.   The world he imagined, dreamed of, and worked to create was a better world than Shakespeare’s; a gentler, kinder, more loving world, a peaceful and non-violent world.   We are not there yet.   We are a long way off, I fear, centuries off.   But Gandhi moved us toward it.   Before a better world can be created, it must first be dreamed.

Dwelling where I am now, deep in the heart of Westeros, I find myself surrounded by my characters, the children of my mind and heart and soul.   They are real to me, as I write them, and I struggle to make them real to my readers as well.   All of them are flawed, from the best to the worst.  They do heroic things, they do selfish things.   Some are strong and some are weak, some smart and some stupid.  The smartest may do stupid things.  The bravest may have moments when their courage fails.   Great harms may be done from the noblest motives, great good from motives vile and venal.   Life is like that, and art should reflect that, if it is to remain true.   Ours is a world of contradiction and unintended consequences.

Boromir is my favorite member of the Fellowship.   The tragic hero.   Shakespeare’s Brutus speaks to me as well (more so than the real one); the noblest Roman of them all, whose nobility — and gullibility — lead him to commit a vile crime.   Captain Ahab, Wolf Larsen, Gatsby, Falstaff and Hotspur and Prince Hal (those plays are full of flawed characters, each with his own failings), Ebeneezer Scrooge and Sydney Carton, Gully Foyle, Roger’s Sam, Dr. Doom and Dr. Jekyll and Dr. Moreau, Morbius of Altair IV, Huckleberry Finn, Sir Lancelot and Sir Gawain (but not Sir Galahad, so perfect, so empty) and Guinevere and Arthur and even Mordred, that little shit.. oh, the list is long.   And when my reading turns to history, biography, memoirs, my response is much the same.

I am not blind to the flaws of those who went before us, and I recognize the truth of Mark Antony’s words.   But Gandhi’s words are nobler, and those are the words I choose to live by… to treasure the memory of the good they did.

Our world needs more empathy, less anger.

 

 

 

Current Mood: melancholy melancholy

THE EXPANSE Rules

August 24, 2020 at 10:34 am
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Jimmy Corey — aka James S.A. Corey — aka Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck — is another friend(s) who kicked ass and took names at CoNZealand’s Hugo Awards, taking home the rocket ship for BEST SERIES over some very worthy competitors.

Maybe you’ve seen the TV show.   It’s great.   But the books are even better…

… and we have signed copies of all of them at Beastly Books, beside the Jean Cocteau.

To order yourself a set head over the the Beastly Books website at  https://jeancocteaucinema.com/beastlybooks/

And take a look at our other offerings while you are there.   The Jean Cocteau has hosted author events with some amazing writers, and ALL our books are autographed.

Current Mood: pleased pleased

The Amazing Ellen

August 22, 2020 at 8:23 am
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Ellen Datlow won another Hugo at the Virtual Worldcon that was supposed to be in New Zealand, but wasn’t.   For Best Editor, Short Form.    I have lost track of how many rockets Ellen has racked up at this point, but it’s a hell of a lot, and all very well deserved.  She’s an amazing editor and anthologist.

If you want to see her editing prowess at work, check out our selections at Beastly Books.   We’ve had the honor of hosting Ms. Datlow on several occasions, and we still have a few AUTOGRAPHED copies of some of her anthologies in stock.

Mad hats and creepy dolls, what could be more fun!  Both terrific books, and signed.

For those, and many many many more titles, check out the Beastly Books website at https://jeancocteaucinema.com/beastlybooks/

We have a fabulous selection of titles, and almost ALL our books are autographed.

IAIA Scholarships

August 19, 2020 at 10:33 am
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IAIA — the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe — recently had its annual fundraising event.

Virtually, of course.

It seemed to be a great success.

There’s a video of the event.   You can even catch a glimpse of yours truly at 1:58 minute mark, talking about the annual scholarships I sponsor there, through my foundation.   There are brief statements from this year’s scholarship winners as well.

 

2020 IAIA Virtual Scholarship Event—Scholarships Shape Futures

Though the annual fund-raising event is over, the need for funds is not.   IAIA does great work, so if any of you reading it have a few extra dollars, please do send them their way.   It would be much appreciated.

 

Current Mood: pleased pleased