M. Shaw's Blog, page 2
April 20, 2012
Haven’t felt this way in a long time
Like I don’t want food. I don’t want to play games. I just want to destroy everything.
I need to take my vitamins.
Filed under: Uncategorized
January 11, 2012
I’m a thing (a short literary mixtape) (more of an ep really)
Head is empty.
The Boy Who Was Born Wrapped in Barbed Wire by Christopher Barzak
The Girl Who Ate Butterflies by M. Rickert
The Final Moments of the Auto-Frankenstein (a cautionary tale) by Teodor Reljic
Barney by Chloe Caldwell
The Melancholy of Mecha Girl by Catherynne M. Valente
Banana Kid’s Suicide Note by M. Shaw
I am a psychoemotional alternate reality. Happy new self.
Filed under: Literary mixtape
January 8, 2012
December in Pictures and Sounds
The month came and went. If you live in Columbus and are tuned into the local coffee houses and/or burlesque venues then you probably heard about most of what I was up to. If not, then it’s because you don’t live in Columbus and I was too busy to write about it. There wasn’t a day all month that couldn’t be its own post, but all I’m offering here is a half-complete picture of what went on. It doesn’t even include the robot fucking a VCR. It doesn’t even include audio of “Hotaru no Hikari” which I suppose I can get later.
Whiskey tasting at Kafe Kerouac. With Peach Roulette and stream-of-consciousness tasting cards.
Billy Goat Dave at Holiday Hop. Freaking out the establishment, when the “establishment” is the arty gallery-going alternative crowd.
Offshoot Productions Christmas Hootenanny… with Billy Goat Dave! (photos and videos by Roger Heartsun) Excellent show. Much love to Brett Morehead, The Ooh-La-Las, Houndstooth Bindles and our venue, the Knock Theater, and Tony Vargas for saving Christmas’s sound.
Christmas cookies. One of them is me.
Electro Cult Circus Christmas eve eve show.
Filed under: Uncategorized
November 8, 2011
Fractious review/random thoughts on finishing George R. R. Martin’s ‘A Dance with Dragons’
Basically enjoyed it, but probably my least favorite installment of the series so far.
POV characters whose chapters were all they were cracked up to be: Jon Snow, Tyrion Lannister, Davos Seaworth, Theon Greyjoy, Asha Greyjoy, Quentyn Martell, Jon Connington
Melisandre is not as interesting a POV character as you would expect. Without looking at the book I could not tell you what happens in her one chapter to save my life.
My favorite characters are still Davos and Dolorous Edd. If you are a Dolorous Edd impersonator in Columbus who I can hire for parties, please e-mail me.
Found myself genuinely wishing that Rhaegal and Viserion would burn Meereen to the ground so we could move on. The intrigue going on there is basically like the intrigue going on in King’s Landing except that it’s happening to characters who are less interesting. Also feels like it’s taking longer to actually happen.
Areo Hotah is still a non-character who pops up when we need an omniscient narrator.
I like what’s going on with Wyman Manderly/White Harbor, too bad it takes up like 3% of the book.
I miss Jaime, Brienne and Sansa.
Have never been more sure of the identities of Jon Snow’s actual parents.
I like it when the series is cruel and people die.
Filed under: Uncategorized
November 7, 2011
M. Shaw is working
Shaw means “dweller in the wood” and that’s where I’ve been at, since around early October. No new stories since then, anyway. Some of y’all might have seen me at Travonna Coffee House the last few Thursdays (except this past week when the road buttfucked my rear bike tire on the way there) reading my shit and other people’s. Other than that, been keeping my head below the water line with two big projects, both of which you’ll hear about now.
#1
Offshoot Productions Showcase is an event that Offshoot-gumi has put on twice, once this past May and once in June, in both cases to raise money for charity. This time it’s a similar deal but the show is much more extensive. For one thing it involves live sketch comedy and music, two types of performance that were not in either of the previous ones, as well as film, burlesque and staged reading. It’s also longer–4 hours including both intermissions.
Planning the showcase has been on my time like a lion on a zebra carcass. For one thing, I’m writing all of the live portions (that kind of thing being my, you know, job with Offshoot) and I’m emcee-ing 80% of the sucker to boot. Draining as hell and totally worth it because the show is kick god’s balls. It’s a Christmas special written by somebody who hates Christmas. Jesus shoots Santa in the leg and then emcees the burlesque show (the 20% I’m offstage for). The best part involves a potato but I can’t really explain that here.
We’ll be hawking a bunch of crap at the show as well: among other things, Offshoot DVD’s, greeting cards and…
#2
One of Offshoot’s film projects is a short book trailer based on my story Her New Boyfriend Argues with Barking Dogs, originally intended to promote ‘Eating Paper’ as well as Offshoot’s ability to make book trailers. However, ‘Eating Paper’ is out of print; the last 2 print copies were donated to a silent auction this past week, and only the eBook version is still available (though I think I might have seen one print copy in the display case at Kafe Kerouac a little while ago; whether it’s for sale I’m not sure). As a result, Offshoot is taking the full-length short story collection originally slotted for February and moving up a limited release for the Dec. 9 showcase.
Fifi, Kill! is my more-or-less collected short fiction from 2007 to now. (M. Shaw, you were writing in 2007?/If you want to call it writing, I guess) There will be some new material, and of course anything that interferes with contractual obligations will be left out. The “limited release” thing means that, until the originally planned February release, it will be available only at the Christmas Hootenanny, alongside Offshoot’s other, far stranger book, Fried Chicken Pancakes.
We’ve been having a fun time figuring out cool things to do for Fifi, Kill! promotions-wise. Among other stuff, there will be comic-book-style “variant covers” by different artists within Offshoot-gumi and otherwise. All the copies at the Dec. 9 showcase will have the above cover by A.E. Scott, because it’s awesome and also the other covers haven’t actually been finished yet.
This is the part of the post where I try to remember all the updates and shit.
…You know what, fuck it, I’ve got a page for that shit. It’s up to date, just check there and see if you forgot anything.
Anyone trying to find my on Facebook, they’ve apparently decided that I’m not a real person and want me to enter a phone number before I can get back on. Problem is, I don’t have a phone; people who know me know where to find me, and people who don’t know don’t need to be makin’ that shit ring in my ear. My only option is to use the phone at work, but it’s a hardline so I need to click “call me” instead of “send me a text” and I always get a message that says their systems are too overburdened just right at this exact moment. The fact that I always get this message no matter what time of the day or night I try leads me to believe that Facebook doesn’t actually have a system in place for calling people with activation codes, and I’ll have to say goodbye to having my face in a book for the time being. Got a friend to make me a page, though, so we’ll have to use that.
Filed under: Uncategorized
