Warren Ellis's Blog, page 84
January 2, 2012
Night Music: Kristine Barrett
Meredith Yayanos, longtime friend and editor of COILHOUSE magazine, put me on to this the other day. In her other life, Mer's a musician, and she will be recording strings for Kristine Barrett's new album, of which this is a preview of sorts.
Mer describes Kristine's work as "ageless, eerie song incantations." Which will do for me, tonight. Good night.
Related articles
Night Music: talkingmakesnosense (warrenellis.com)
Tomorrow's World: The Near Future Of Pop (warrenellis.com)
Spektrmodule 03 (warrenellis.com)
Brubaker & Phillips' FATALE: A Preview
Ed Brubaker was kind enough to shoot me an ARC (Advance Reading Copy) of his new comics series with illustrator Sean Phillips, FATALE, the other week. Ed was kind of freaked out when I said "this is a lot of fun."
"You never call anything 'fun,'" Ed said. "Never! You hate it, right?"
Nope. It's fun. It's Ed and Sean mixing up crime and horror in a big tub with a bloody great bit of wood, which would be entertaining enough in its own right: but there's deep barbs sunk in the big stick, with a sharp steel shine that promises more than you see on the surface.
I must have convinced him, because he's given me a five-page preview of the first issue of FATALE to show you. It's out in comics stores from this Wednesday, I believe. (Probably a day later in Britain.) Please click through to see them, and the alternative cover to issue one that for some reason cracks me up every time I see it.
Related articles
The Broadcast Of Comics (warrenellis.com)
Supers (warrenellis.com)
Brandon Graham & Simon Roy's PROPHET (warrenellis.com)
The First Comic I Ever Loved (warrenellis.com)
Bookmarks for 2012-01-02
"Have you ever you looked up at the bright, cavernous Aristarchus Crater on the Moon through a telescope or binoculars and wondered what it would be like to stand on the rim and peer inside? Spectacular new views from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is almost as good as being there, and a new video lets you "rappel" down and take a closer look at the west side of the crater walls."
(tags:space )
Space mountain produces terrestrial meteorites
"When NASA's Dawn spacecraft entered orbit around giant asteroid Vesta in July, scientists fully expected the probe to reveal some surprising sights. But no one expected a 13-mile high mountain, two and a half times higher than Mount Everest, to be one of them."
(tags:space )
Should we terraform Mars?
"planetary ecosynthesis" – nice term. Also, I believe the answer is Yes.
(tags:space )
everyday structures
"Recommended reading: Alan Wiig's "everyday structures", a blog "explor[ing] the place of infrastructure in the urban landscape", with a particular focus on "Hertzian space" and digital communications infrastructure"
(tags:cities )
January 1, 2012
REAMDE
Someone described this as "Neal Stephenson writing as Stephen Bury." Which, while funny, seemed unnecessarily cruel. This long run of a book has a plot gimme – a point where the author pleads, "please, just gimme this one complete bullshit suspension of disbelief if not sentience and I'll make it worth your while, honest to god" – right in the middle of it that was to me SO blatant and desperate that I instead could not think of a fate cruel enough for him. By the end, it's mostly forgiven, as the book is revealed as an antic take on the Clancy/Brown 'airport thriller' structure. Long old joke to tell, but the punchline lands. Just.
(declaration of interest: The Baroque Cycle is one of my favourite books of the century so far, and I yearn for the year when I'll have enough free time to read it all over again. After 3000 pages, I was genuinely sad when I realised I was reaching the end of the story.)
(I finally finished this book on the 31st, but screw it: I'm calling it my first finished book of 2012. And am trying to keep a better count, this year.)
It's not the man's best book, and the prose in some sections feels tired. Stephenson's place in my admiration makes me question my own reading, and wonder if he was going for the plain, character-free propulsion of a Clancy. But in others it leaps and soars, and makes me want to revisit the finely hewn prose of ANATHEM, which has gone unfinished in my house because I bought the hardback and it's so stupidly fucking heavy that it's actually kind of uncomfortable to handle for long periods. I wanted a book and got a literary kettle bell. In the final analysis, there's enough jumping and swooping to make it an entertaining trip.
Station Ident: 2012 by Molly Crabapple
Happy New Year. Luck to us all.
December 21, 2011
End Of Year
Closing up shop until January. Will be adding new content and things here in 2012. If you have suggestions for what you'd like to see, or changes to what's done here going forward, you can email the dump at warrenellis@gmail.com. Have a good break. And a fine new year. G'night.
December 20, 2011
The Punisher
No, seriously, that's what Red Dog Saloon in Hoxton calls this. Best burger I've had in ages, too. Lunch with Jones and Schulze of BERG. Also there was beer. Winterval begins.
(now having coffee in Carnaby Street. Bloody Xmas shopping.)
December 19, 2011
Bookmarks for 2011-12-18
"Amnesty International says the charge of sorcery has often been used in Saudi Arabia to punish people, generally after unfair trials, for exercising their right to freedom of speech or religion."
(tags:crime )
December 18, 2011
SPEKTRMODULE 03
SPEKTRMODULE
03
Comfort And Joy
49 minutes and 54 seconds
Direct mp3 link. Press Play on the player then find the menu button in the bottom left for other functions.
None of me talking in this one. I just wanted a nice long mix. Send thanks or complaints for lack of my horrible voice to @warrenellis or warrenellis@gmail.com.
1. logotone
2. "Seed & Light" – Charlatan (album: "Equinox")
3. "Of Woods & Snow" – Anji Cheung (album:"Ritual")
4. "Mindless Reverie" - Mordant Music (album: "ModernismuseuM / MMegaplekz")
5. "November Sequence" - Pye Corner Audio with The Advisory Circle (single: "Study Series 07: Autumnal Activities"
6. "Montana Mountain Groan" – Run DMT (album: "Dreams")
7. "When It Gets Dark Outside I Tend To Go And Play Inside" - EL Heath (album: "Winter Soundtrack"
8. "Adagio For String Portrait " – Rene Hell (album: "The Terminal Symphony")
9. "Christmas (Pale Sketcher Remix)" - Jesu (EP: "Christmas EP")
10. "horizone" – partli cloudi (album: "rotten wood")
11. "The Winter Olympics" – Chris Rehm (album: "UNSCHÄRFE / SHIMMER")
12. "Tee Pee Sleep" - je suis le petit chevalier (album: "Discovering Mathematics 2")
13. "December 1971" - Current 93 (album: "Baalstorm, Sing Omega")
14. "The Winter Of 1539-1540" - Goldmund (album: "The Malady Of Elegance")
15. "Silent Night (Noapte De Vis)"- Glasvegas (album: "A Snowflake Fell (And It Felt Like A Kiss")
16. logotone
PREVIOUSLY: 1 – Fire Axes In Space | 2 – The Lane
Bookmarks for 2011-12-18
"Ad-hoc interview with a member of BOPE – background reading particularly the report entitled "They Come in Shooting" by Amnesty International recommended. Their working schedule changes daily spending a straight 36 hours in the field. "I carry three or four spare mobile phone batteries"."
(tags:crime )
Man questioned over woman burned alive in lift | World news | guardian.co.uk
"A man is being questioned by police in connection with the death of a woman burned alive in the lift of her New York City apartment building."
(tags:crime )
Links for December 15th
""I've now stopped accumulating stuff. Except books—but books are different. Books are more like a fluid than individual objects."
(tags:stuff )
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