Me again, talking.
Here's an inteview from the San Diego Comicon, done by the guys at Nerdist:
http://www.nerdist.com/2013/07/nerdist-podcast-george-r-r-martin/
Be warned, it's mostly about stuff OTHER than GAME OF THRONES / SONG OF ICE AND FIRE.
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((… and fans from Arizona, Colorado, Texas, and other surrounding states who have reliable cars and enough free time to drive to Santa Fe… or maybe just a bunch of frequent flyer miles they need to use up.))
Tickets are now available for the first week's offerings at the revived Jean Cocteau Cinema.
Here's our schedule for our first week:
FRIDAY AUGUST 9
630pm Forbidden Planet – SOLD OUT
845pm Orpheus
11pm Dark Star
SATURDAY AUGUST 10
2pm Forbidden Planet
415pm Orpheus
630pm Forbidden Planet
845pm Orpheus
11pm Dark Star
SUNDAY AUGUST 11
2pm Orpheus
415pm Forbidden Planet
7pm Orpheus
9pm Forbidden Planet
MONDAY AUGUST 12
7pm Forbidden Planet
9pm Orpheus
TUESDAY AUGUST 13
7pm Orpheus
9pm Forbidden Planet
WEDNESDAY AUGUST 14
7pm Forbidden Planet
9pm Orpheus
THURSDAY AUGUST 15
2pm Orpheus
415pm Forbidden Planet
7pm Orpheus
9pm Forbidden Planet
Tickets to all showings are absolutely FREE. So come by the theatre — we're at 418 Montezuma, just off Guadalupe, near the Railrunner depot and Sanbusco — and pick up one, or two, or five.
And I'll see you at the movies.
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We're down to seven days till the grand re-opening of the Jean Cocteau Cinema in Santa Fe.
[That sound you just heard was me gulping. Work is proceeding apace, but there's still a lot to do, and that opening is bearing down on us like a damned locomotive. I need to whip my minions harder.]
First up, the classic 1956 MGM big budget SF classic, FORBIDDEN PLANET.
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Tickets for FORBIDDEN PLANET… and Jean Cocteau's ORPHEUS and John Carpenter's DARK STAR, our other featured attraction… will all be FREE, but they're going fast, especially for opening night. If you're in Santa Fe, drop by the box office and get yours now.
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Oh, and we also hope to have signed copies of some of my books for sale at the theatre… and maybe other cool stuff as well.
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The Grand Re-Opening of the Jean Cocteau Cinema came off as scheduled on Friday evening… something I scarcely would have believed a week ago. We made it with… ah… minutes to spare. Work was still going on when I arrive at the theatre an hour before opening.
All in all, it was a great weekend.
We had full houses for almost all our matinees and evening showings, and good crowds for the two midnight shows as well. Large, enthusiastic, diverse crowds — young and old, of every race and ethnicity, native Santa Feans and newcomers to town and tourists just here for the weekend, geeks and straights, boys and girls, old folks and children, hardcore SF fans and devotees of the French new wave… they all mixed and mingled in the Cocteau's gorgeously redesigned cafe area, enjoyed our first art exhibition, and then filed into the hall to enjoy the films… and meet our special guest.
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Yes, it's Robby himself, the star of FORBIDDEN PLANET, who was on hand to help introduce the show. . . and pose for pictures with visitors. If you missed the chance to attend our opening weekend, have no fear… Robby will be there all week.
Robby was a huge hit, I can safely say. FORBIDDEN PLANET, Jean Cocteau's ORPHEUS, and our midnight offering of DARK STAR also seemed to go over well. And, yes, the Cocteau's famous popcorn was back, with real butter, all the old toppings, and some new ones as well.
We did have a few glitches, as any new enterprise will. Our ice machine broke down even before we opened, requiring the staff to rush out for bags of ice. And the heating element on our brand new pizza warmer died. But everything else seems to work well. I hope all the folks who attended had a great time. I know that I certainly did.
There's been some great press about the reopening. Here's a sample:
http://www.sfreporter.com/santafe/article-7622-top-10-rad-things-at.html
My thanks to all those who made this possible:
— Meredith Haber and Karen Meredith, my realtors, who helped me acquire the Cocteau,
— Ty Franck, the "bad cop," who helped work out, well, almost everything,
— the amazing Jayne Franck, whose stunning redesign of the lobby and concession area wowed everyone who saw it,
— Marshall Thompson of Constructive Assets, who fixed all the stuff that needed fixing, and turned Jayne's designs into reality,
— my ace minions, Pat Rogers, Raya Golden, and Tyler Smith,
— my new minions, the staff of the Jean Cocteau, who acquitted themselves marvelously,
— and last but not least, Jon Bowman, my general manager, who booked the films, hired the staff, popped the corn, turned on the lights, and generally helped turn my rather insane dream into technicolor reality.
The Jean Cocteau first opened its doors in 1984, and closed them in 2006. A twenty-two year run is nothing to sneeze at, but here's hoping the new Jean Cocteau will help to entertain, enlighten, and delight the people of Santa Fe for at least twice as long.
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For those of you who were not able to be in San Diego for Comicon:
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The rest is silence.
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. . . until the Grand Re-Opening of the Jean Cocteau Cinema, the movie theatre I bought a few months back in a fit of madness.
We've been busily refurbishing the theatre all that time. As late as a week ago, it looked as if a bomb had gone off in the lobby, and I was having a nervous breakdown. Things have finally started to come together, however, and my contractor (the amazing Marshall Thompson of Constructive Assets) and my manager (the astonishing Jon Bowman, founder of the Santa Fe Film Festival) both assure me that we will indeed be ready come the day. I certainly hope so. We've kept the theatre's wonderful old marquee, after replacing the old fluorescents with brighter LEDs, and the auditorium is more or less the same (though we've installed some wheelchair seating), but the lobby and concessions area has a bold new look, designed by the wonderfully talented Jayne Franck. Assuming our chairs and tables arrive on time, it should be spectacular…
The Jean Cocteau has been dark for seven years, since Trans-Lux closed all its theatres in April, 2006. To celebrate our return to life, and let the Santa Fe film-going community know that we're back, admission will be FREE to all shows during our first week.
FREE! FREE!! FREE!!!
We open on Friday, August 9, with two classic feature films: ORPHEUS, by Jean Cocteau, for whom our cinema is named, and FORBIDDEN PLANET, the classic MGM big-budget SF movie from 1956, which IMNSHO remains the best science fiction film ever made.
Both of them will be shown on our brand new (slightly larger and definitely brighter) screen, with our brand new digital projector(an NEC 900 Digital Projection System and Integrated Media Server) and our brand new upgraded sound system (Dolby Digital Surround Sound Processor CP650), so the picture quality and sound should be better than ever.
We will also be offering pizza, pastries, and the best popcorn in town (with parmesan) from our new art deco concession counter.
(No, the food and drink won't be free, that's just admission).
And we have some cool SURPRISES in store for that first week as well. So those of you in Santa Fe… or Albuquerque… or, hell, anywhere in driving distance, should make of point of turning up for our Grand Opening Week to see the new improved Jean Cocteau.
More on all this in the weeks to come. Meanwhile, our website is just up, so take a look. Be advised, website construction is still in progress, so a lot of our features are not working yet… but you can check out the general design, and get a peek at the posters for some of the films we've got booked for the weeks and months to come.
http://www.jeancocteaucinema.com/
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He's a father, he's a son. He's been a bishop, a cardinal, a prior, a friar, a vicar, a knight, a lord, a mayor, a director. There's one born every minute, but by any other name he'd smell as sweet.
Later:
I see the long delay between visits from Froggy the Gremlin hasn't dulled your skill at deciphering clues any.
Yes, it's the fine British character actor Roger Ashton-Griffiths, who has been cast in the role of Mace Tyrell, son to the Queen of Thorns, and father of Loras and Margaery.
Thanks for playing, and congrats to those who got it right.
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Another anthology done, another monkey off my back.
The last revision just came in on OLD VENUS, the latest (and last, for a time) original anthology that Gardner Dozois and I have been putting together. Gardner will be delivering the final manuscript… well, e-manuscript… to our editors at Bantam Spectra later today.
Sixteen stories set on Venus. Not, however, the real life Venus, with its rains of sulfuric acid and surface temperatures that would roast a man in the blink of an eye, but the old watery pulp Venus of our lost youth, with its swamps, dinosaurs, and web-footed Venusians… Venerians… whatever.
The final lineup for this one will look like this:
INTRODUCTION, by Gardner Dozois
FROGHEADS, by Allen M. Steele
THE DROWNED CELESTRIAL, by Lavie Tidhar
PLANET OF FEAR, by Paul McAuley
GREEVES AND THE EVENING STAR, by Matthew Hughes
A PLANET CALLED DESIRE, by Gwyneth Jones
LIVING HELL, by Joe Haldeman
BONES OF AIR, BONES OF STONE, by Stephen Leigh
RUINS, by Eleanor Arnason
THE TUMBLEDOWNS OF CLEOPATRA ABYSS, by David Brin
BY FROGSLED AND LIZARDBACK TO OUTCAST VENUSIAN LEPERS, by Garth Nix
THE SUNSET OF TIME, by Michael Cassutt
PALE BLUE MEMORIES, by Tobias S. Buckell
THE HEART'S FILTHY LESSON, by Elizabeth Bear
THE WIZARD OF THE TREES, by Joe R. Lansdale
THE GODSTONE OF VENUS, by Mike Resnick
BOTANICA VENERIS: THIRTEEN PAPERCUTS BY IDA COUNTESS RATHANGAN, by Ian McDonald
This one is even more fun than our forthcoming OLD MARS, I think… and there's one story in there that's so bloody good that if it doesn't win the Hugo and Nebula both, I'll count it as a major injustice. Which one? Ah, I will leave you guys to figure that out. But first you'll need to read the book. Look for it along about a year after OLD MARS.
Gardner and I wish to categorically deny the rumor that we are now working on OLD URANUS.
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Monday morning, and Tor.com has uploaded another teaser from DANGEROUS WOMEN.
If you'd like to break your fasts at Brakebills with Lev Grossman, check out this sample from his Magicians story, "The Girl in the Mirror," at:
http://www.tor.com/stories/2013/07/dangerous-women-lev-grossman-excerpt
Watch this space. More to come.
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Tor.com is posting up these DANGEROUS WOMEN excerpts faster than I can blog about them.
Two news ones have gone up since I posted about the Jim Butcher tease.
Here's a taste of Russian cooking from Carrie Vaughn's "Raisa Stepanova" —
http://www.tor.com/stories/2013/07/dangerous-women-carrie-vaughn-excerpt
And here's a little tease from Diana Rowland's "City Lazarus" —
http://www.tor.com/stories/2013/07/dangerous-women-diana-rowland-excerpt
Swell stories both, I avow. Go ye and get teased.
More to come, including… yes…. "The Princess and the Queen."
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