Craig Laurance Gidney's Blog, page 37
July 3, 2015
MUSIC RECOMMENDATION: Arctic Art Pop–Anneli Drecker’s “Rocks & Straws”
I have been following the music of Anneli Marian Drecker since the 1980s, when she was the lead singer of the synth-pop band Bel Canto. The first three Bel Canto albums melded fairytale-themed lyrics, neoclassical and world music (mostly Middle-Eastern) influences to electronic music, over which Drecker’s dramatic coloratura swooped and fluttered. (Imagine a cross between the Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance and Depeche Mode). Later Bel Canto albums drifted to a more 90s-era electronica sound, and Dreckers previous two solo albums were pretty much straight-forward pop.
Her new self-produced album, Rocks & Straws, is a triumphant return to her art-pop roots. From the press release:
Rocks & Straws is a homecoming album, an ode to her native town and region. The songs, all composed by Anneli, are based on lyrics by cult poet Arvid Hanssen and translated to English by artist and writer Roy-Frode Løvland. Hanssen´s poems are strongly influenced by the mysterious and powerful nature of this arctic region, like the writings of Knut Hamsun, born only a few miles from Hanssen´s birthplace.
Drecker’s voice is deepened to a lovely lyric alto, but she can still reach stunning soprano heights. The melodies she composed have actual hooks—this is accessible art pop. The album is warm, orchestral, and there is a jazzy noir vibe to some of the songs. Drecker’s piano playing is impressively delicate, like the faintest webbing of frost. Rocks & Straws belongs somewhere between the ethereality of Bjork’s Vespertine and Kate Bush’s whimsical 50 Words For Snow.
You can listen to one of song here:
http://www.runegrammofon.com/artists/anneli-drecker/rcd2169-anneli-drecker-rocks-straws-cd-lp/
Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: anneli drecker, music reviews
June 26, 2015
BOOK RECOMMENDATION:Legenda Maris by Tanith Lee
Today is Tanith Lee‘s funeral.
Per the request of her husband John Kaiine, her collection ‘Legenda Maris’ (Immanion Press) is released this day.
‘Legenda Maris’ collects Lee’s sea-themed fantasy short fiction, and is an excellent introduction to her darkly lyrical work. It includes some of the first fiction I read by her: the excellent ‘Because Our Skins Are Finer‘ and ‘Magritte’s Secret Agent.’ An added bonus is the artwork–the cover and the frontispiece are by Tanith herself.
Filed under: Book Birthdays Tagged: immanion press, Tanith Lee
June 23, 2015
Word Games for Bigots: On Semantic Racism (Storify Link)
I had the displeasure of seeing someone use a play on words to express a racist sentiment.
I tweeted about and Storifyed about the practice of what I dub ‘Semantic Racism.’
https://storify.com/ethereallad/semantic-racism
Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: racism, storify
June 9, 2015
Cloaking Device Off: Homophobia in the SFF Community
When you are queer, you have the option of being invisible. Sometimes, there are times when being Out is pointless or irrelevant. (For example, a job interview—my sexuality has nothing to do with my ability to do a job). But other times, you can’t stay silent. Silence in the face of bigotry is dangerous. The bigot, facing no opposition, brays on, continuing to say hurtful and abusive things. The bigot believes, erroneously, that silence = agreement.
When I volunteered at the last World Fantasy Convention, one of my co-volunteers was L. Jagi Lamplighter, wife of John C. Wright, who has become more famous for his unhinged, overheated and overlong rants on queer people than he has for his fiction. (There a plenty of places online to read his various epic tirades). The family resides in the DC area, so they are local to me. I didn’t come out to Lamplighter, for a couple of reasons. First, it was irrelevant to the work we were doing (cooking, cleaning, setting up and dismantling the con suite and bar, etc). Second, I didn’t want to make waves. I was initially nervous, though. Surely, she must be as over the top as her husband.
She was not. She was perfectly lovely and friendly. Maybe if I had come out, she would have turned on a dime and become vituperative. But my instinct is that she still would be friendly. It is difficult to reconcile the warmth of Ms. Lamplighter with the hatred of Mr. Wright.
To him, I am perverse monster, an affront to his marriage, family and religion. My very existence invites, to paraphrase one of his statements, being beaten with tire-irons and ax-handles. Here’s the thing: I have been assaulted for being gay. (Ill share the story another time, maybe). And the times I’ve been called slurs (both racial and homophobic) are too numerous to recount. I’m very familiar with how religiosity masks and justifies hatred. Those words of his have consequences, often lethal ones.
But, in the light of the politics of resentment that have recently come to light (vis a vis the Hugo kerfuffle), silence is no longer an option.In retrospect, I wish I did come out to Wright’s wife. It could have gone disastrously, of course. But maybe, just maybe, knowing his wife worked with a Real Live Homosexual might have mitigated some of the rhetoric thrown our way. Maybe it would be just a tad more difficult to type a post excusing the violence I have actually faced. The Gays are an abstraction, a boogeyman to real against. Craig Laurance Gidney, however, is a real human being, known for his talent and his sense of humor.
I’ve turned my Cloaking Device off. I am here. I’m black. I’m gay. And I’m not going anywhere.
(Comments are closed because I have neither the time or energy to deal with bigots).
Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: bigotry, homophobia, speculative fiction
June 2, 2015
My interview with dark fiction author Dale Bailey
While I was away, my interview with horror/dark fantasy author Dale Bailey posted on the Washington Independent Review of Books. You can check it out here.
Be sure to check out his literate, dark fiction. His new collection, THE END OF THE END OF EVERYTHING is excellent.
Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: dale bailey, washington independent review of books
May 28, 2015
May 26, 2015
Night’s Daughter–Tanith Lee: September 19, 1947 – May 24, 2015
“Gothic poetess, comic young-adult author, robust adventure-fantasy novelist: Tanith Lee has more writing personas than Sybil. But in her short fiction, all these aspects come gloriously together. Such stories as ‘Antonius Bequeathed’ or ‘The Persecution Machine,’ with their death-defying mixture of prose poetry, genre trope reversals and ominous wit, could be written by no one else.”–from my tribute in Weird Tales.
I just learned that Tanith Lee passed away on Sunday.
I first encountered her writing in 1986, with the novel Delirium’s Mistress and the short story collection, Dreams of Dark and Light. Her poetic prose and soaring imagination astounded me. She was a versatile storyteller who wrote in many different modes. She published children’s and young adult, mystery, horror, science fiction, historical and fantasy.
I got in contact with her when she published Fatal Women, her collection of dark magical realist tales of lesbian fiction she channelled as Esther Garber. I met her shortly after in London during a con. We kept in touch via email and the occasional surprise snail-mail post. I had the honor of working on Disturbed By Her Song, a second collection of channelled fiction, which included work by Esther’s half-brother, Judas.
I will miss her fiction, and her lovely correspondence.
I am keeping her husband, John Kaiine, in my thoughts.
Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Tanith Lee
May 19, 2015
“Sea, Swallow Me & Other Stories” is now an audiobook
Lethe Press just released my first collection, Sea, Swallow Me & Other Stories, as an audiobook. It’s narrated by performer (actor/singer) Steve Ryan and has a snazzy new cover.
Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: audiobook, Lethe Press, sea swallow me & other stories
May 12, 2015
My interview with Monica Byrne, author of “The Girl in the Road” has posted
Check out my interview with Monica Byrne, author of the Tiptree Award-winning novel The Girl in the Road has posted on the Washington Independent Review of Books. I knew it would win the Tiptree as soon as I finished it. Just call me Carnac the Great.
Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: author interviews, monica byrne, the girl in the road, tiptree award, washington independent review of books
May 11, 2015
A Portrait of the Author as a Horror Writer
I just came from a wonderful weekend spent at the World Horror Convention in Atlanta.
I’ve never considered myself as a horror writer. My elevator pitch description to folks who ask me what I write is often “magical realist” or “contemporary fantasy.” But there is a streak of darkness that runs through my fiction. Maybe I’m more “dark fantasy,” but I have written some horrific things.
Below is a list of my published horror fiction
In Sea, Swallow Me & Other Stories
“The Safety of Thorns”: African elder gods (or spirits) live in the briar patch on a plantation in the antebellum South. The story is about the encounter between them and a young enslaved boy.
“Etiolate”: A homoerotic horror story about a kind of incubus set in the 90s goth scene in Baltimore. It has a David Lynchian feel.
“Catch Him by the Toe”: A Southern Gothic tale about a town haunted by a demonic ghost.
In Skin Deep Magic
“Death and Two Maidens”: A penny dreadful set in Victorian London about an Afro-British charwoman’s misadventures in the afterlife.
“Sugardaddy”: Set in a housing project in DC, this is the story of a teenage girl’s bizarre transformation. It takes the form of journal entries, and is partially a homage to Robert Aickman’s “Pages from a Young Girl’s Journal.”
Balogun Ojetagde, Jeff Carroll, Gerald Coleman, John Edward Lawson, Crystal Connor and yours truly. Photo by Scott Nicolay
Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: world horror convention, writerly musings
