I finally got around to making a pilgrimage to the government surplus store at the other end of town, and secured myself a desk of a size more suitable to a man with a prodigious amount of stuff to do… not to mention one under which I can actually stretch out my legs. This, ladies and gentlemen, is a revolution in my working environment – behold!

Granted, all of that desk space will doubtless be festooned with work-in-progress by the end of next week, but I thrive on a certain degree of controlled chaos. And look – two monitors! No more switching windows to see the effects of code changes on a website design^[1]!

Writing about music

All is busy at The Dreaded Press, with new CDs arriving on an almost daily basis from established and unsigned acts alike, and regular contributions from a stable of four reviewers… but still I need more! Any volunteers out there?

Album of the week

Your recommended slice of audio bliss for the week is Hymn To The Immortal Wind, the new album from Japanese post-rock maestros Mono. My review of the album isn’t up yet, but my review of their show in Brighton a week ago tells you about as much as you need to know. Mono make atmospheric and poignant post-rock with the epic proportions of a snowcapped mountain range; absolutely beautiful, and the ideal tonic to the madness of the world. Listen, and be still.

Writing about books

Well, I’m mid-way through three different books (two novels, one non-fiction) and have a queue of reviews to write (mostly for here at VCTB or Futurismic, so no pressing deadlines except for the non-fiction title), but actual sit-down reviewing work has been thin on the ground of late. Much of my analytical energies (not to mention will to live) were drained by reading and reporting upon what must be the worst would-be novel I’ve yet encountered. Still, the silver lining shines: I’ve learned lots of new ways to not suck in my own fictional outpourings…

Futurismic

Things are ticking over nicely at Futurismic at the moment; it’s nearly new story time, and April sees us hosting a piece from a writer whose stature would have, to my mind at least, precluded him from bothering with a market as small as we are. It’s also a very different story to our normal fare; not that we always publish the same sort of stuff, but there’s a different type of Gonzo at work in this particular piece.

So keep your eyes peeled… it’ll be published next Wednesday, as well as Jonathan McCalmont’s Alternative Hugo for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form. Happy days!

Freelance

As the lack of recent FPBs should indicate, there’s plenty of work in my inbox at the moment, and of various types. This is a good thing – who’s not glad of work when the news is full of redundancies? – but it’s really chewing away at my life in terms of scheduling. Trying to juggle a full-time freelance workload with editing two webzines and a relationship with someone who lives nearly 300 miles away is a new challenge, and I’d be lying if I said I’d not fumbled a ball or two. But nothing major, and I’m slowly getting the hang of it… though I’m realising that expecting to have more free time as a freelance may have been, if not naive, a little optimistic. Selah.

Aeroplane Attack

I’m not sure if it’s been mentioned here yet, but those who follow my ramblings on various social media will be aware that Aeroplane Attack have announced our live debut; the lovely ladies of Hong Kong Gardener’s Club have booked us for Saturday 25th April at the Havana Bar, just five minutes walk from the Hall of Mirrors. So, if you’re local to Velcro City, please consider popping along to witness the look of abject terror that will no doubt decorate my face as I play guitar to an audience for the first time ever… there’s a Facebook event with more details (including the other band on the line-up), and you can buy tickets in advance for a quid less than the door tax. Go on, you know you want to…

Oh, you’re busy that night? Well, it just so happens I can now announce our second live date as well! Subject to confirmation, we’ll be playing at the Edge of the Wedge on Monday 11th May; I don’t have details of line-up or door price for this yet, but I can say with confidence that they will be, in order, ‘good’ and ‘cheap or free’. So if you want to witness Velcro City’s foremost shoegazer-alt-rock revivalists in action, set one of those two dates aside and pop your earplugs in your pocket – we promise volume, melody and texture in approximately equal measure.

Books and magazines seen

Relatively few arrivals this week; the only ones of note are two Neal Asher novels from Tor, namely Line War in paperback and Shadow of the Scorpion in hardback. I already have … Scorpion in ARC form from the Night Shade Books limited print run, but have yet to read it^[2].

Coda

Well, there we have it – it feels good to knock out a proper FPB after a month or so of sporadic minimal updates. There’s definitely a cathartic component to it; maybe it’s a bit like journalling in that respect?

But anyway, enough waffle – there are things to do! have a great weekend, people – I surely intend to.

[ ² - Quelle surprise - looking at the TBR shelf, I could probably do nothing but read for three months solid and still not get through the titles I have waiting for me. Still, better to have more books than you have time for than too few, right? ]

Gah, curse this miserable season. The few moments of sunshine there have been this week have occurred when I have, perforce, had to be indoors. As a consequence I’m grumpy and my bodyclock is still wrecked… and I’ve not been out taking photos.

So here’s a group portrait of Aeroplane Attack, the band in which I make loud squalling noises with a guitar, as taken by our drummer Rusty Sheriff.

That Converse sponsorship deal^[1] is really working out well, despite Rusty’s insistence on rocking the Adidas. As an additional bonus, here’s the equipment with which I make the aforementioned noises:

Lovely. The temptation to deploy the thing at full volume at home in recent weeks has been difficult to suppress. Lucky for my neighbours that I’m a nice bloke at heart, eh?

Writing about music

The TDP slow-down has become a full stop, near as dammit. Waiting for a review from a friend to post early next week, and then I shall be putting up the webzine equivalent of the “Gone Fishing” sign for a week or so.

Album of the week

Not that there’s many to choose from, this week’s top pick is Satya by My Sleeping Karma. Buddha-flavoured psychedelic/stoner space-rock; music for, ah, sitting still to. Yes.

Writing about books

No sustained reviewing has been committed this week, though I’ve been taking notes on Melko‘s Singularity’s Ring (which I finished last night, as it happens).

Freelance

The Pretty Big Project still awaits some final choices and finishing, so that’s on the simmer ring for now; T’other Project is proceeding slower than I’d like, principally because my brain is so damned slow at the moment that I can’t concentrate on anything properly and keep making a lot of silly mistakes as a result. Still, getting there slowly.

Lots of other little updates for other clients, too; it’s that time of year, I guess.

PS Publishing

I expect you’ve probably noticed the announcements over at PS Publishing regarding some of our plans for the company’s tenth anniversary, but I might just mention there’s more where that came from. Keep watching the skies!

Futurismic

Also having a bit of an unintentional slow-down over at Futurismic at the moment, partly because it’s a struggle to find anything genuinely newsworthy in amongst the OMG Ten Best [X]!!1 lists and silly season stories. But so it goes.

Books and magazines seen

Just the one incoming title of note this week, namely an ARC of Mind Over Ship by David Marusek.

I went totally doolally over Marusek’s début novel Counting Heads when it came out, so I begged and pleaded with Niall to let me take this one on for Strange Horizons; Niall evidently can’t stand to witness a (theoretically) grown man debase himself in such a manner, so he caved in and got it sent over from the States. w00t!

Coda

Ludicrous how fast the week has passed, especially when compared to the productivity levels achieved… I suspect I’m partly ursine in origin, which would explain my imperative desire to curl up somewhere warm in early October and sleep through until mid-March, at which point to wake up and raise merry and energetic hell with the world in general. I have yet to find an employer sympathetic to this particular lifestyle pattern, however. Selah – at least you are spared my verbosity by the gloom, eh?

But here we are: it’s Friday, and The Allegedly Festive Season is next week. This year is almost done, and it feels like I only just started it! Still, it’s all just arbitrary temporal markers, innit? Now, I need to get some food going on before cracking on with some work… have a great weekend, girls and boys. Hasta luego!

[ ¹ - No, we're not actually sponsored by Converse. But we'd quite like to be sponsored by Mosrite, Electro Harmonix and Devi Ever. Just so you know, like. ]

A notebook impression of Berlin:

“… a place where construction, demolition and renovation are constants. Apparently this is less the case now than it was, say, a decade ago. But still, almost everywhere you go, something old is being knocked down or scrubbed up, or something new is being built.

I kind of enjoy seeing buildings in these transitional states; there’s a peculiar vulnerability and nakedness to them that makes you look anew at their finished neighbours, trying to X-ray them with the mind’s eye to discern their articulation, the way their skeletons support the skin… ”

Pretentious? Moi?

Writing about music

Busy busy busy. For an assortment of reasons it’s just been me on scribbler duties this week, so I’ve been knocking out one review per day in between loads of other gubbins. Business as usual at The Dreaded Press, wot?

Album of the week

A last-minute bid for the crown from a band I’d never heard of before takes the prize this week; the last taboo of america by drill is a grimly political wrestling match between industrial and post-metal, and I like it very much indeed.

Writing about books

Little critical work other than notetaking this week (for all the usual reasons), though I have enjoyed reading the bulk of the latest issue of Interzone, which has some fine stories in it. And hey – now I’m no longer staff I can write reviews of it again if I want to. Hmmm…

Finally finished reading the most recent script, and am currently writing the report on it. The report already threatens to equal the script in length; maybe I’m pulling the punches a bit too much? Or not enough?

Freelance

Hectic week for the old administrivia, what with reaching the end of my second quarter as a freelance with a client list[1]. It’s still very satisfying to send out invoices… though I’d like to be able to put bigger numbers on a lot of them, naturally. Other business rolls on with nothing major or exciting to share as of the moment. We’ll keep you posted…

Futurismic

As mentioned before, we had a super new story at Futurismic this week and we got BoingBoing’d for it too, which is great news both in terms of temporary traffic spiking and general visibility beyond the sf blogosphere. Now I just need to work out how to pull that off every month!

Books and magazines seen

It never ceases to depress me that Orbit can sometimes mail me close to ten books in a week without sending one I’m even remotely interested in. Which isn’t a dig at their output[2] so much as at what seems to be a very wasteful procedure. When they put me on the list I suggested adding me to the ‘science fiction only’ list… turns out there isn’t one. Selah.

So, that means the only title to plug this week is the latest edition of South poetry magazine:

Mmm, windmills.

Coda

Last night was the grand final of the local BOTB analogue, Showcase 2008. I’ve been judging and attending these for seven years now, and I can’t remember another final as having such a diverse line-up or good crowd vibe; no fights or hissy-fits, and all the bands were super cool to each other… Aeroplane Attack’s drummer’s other band didn’t win, but you can’t have everything. Still, nothing marks the end of summer in Velcro City for me quite so strongly; as far as my brain is concerned, we’re now battening down the mental hatches for the long cold ride through winter.

On the subject of Aeroplane Attack, it’s our first proper rehearsal on Sunday, and I’m really looking forward to it. Despite having buggered about with guitars since 1991, this will be the first time I’ve gone to a studio to practice actual original songs at full volume. How exactly we’re going to tote our arsenal of amps, drums and obscure stomp boxes uptown remains to be confirmed, but we’ll find a way. The power of rock compels us.

It’s also the first time in ages that there’s no major gig on the horizon for the next week, though I expect some local shindig will crop up and demand attendance. Last weekend’s This Ain’t No Picnic festival was a great laugh, though, and comes highly recommended[3]. We have a nebulous plan to blag our way onto the bill next year…

And here’s a shocking bit of news for you all – this will be the first Friday night at home in hell knows how long that I won’t be partaking in The Friday Curry. So if the Earth spins off its axis as Sarah Palin ushers in the second coming of Jeebus later this evening, we’ll know that I was doing something important… but this month is all about seeing where I can save money[4].

But hey, the weekend is the weekend, and while there’s work to do there’s also people to hang out with and fun to be had. So I’d best get the task list polished off, hadn’t I? Have a good weekend yourselves – auf weidersehn!

[ 1 - I know, I know, it's flown by. It's quite scary actually. ]

[ 2 - After all, it's my taste that causes the problem. A hundred thousand Laurell k Hamilton fans can't be wrong, right? ]

[ 3 - You owe it to yourself to check out Polysics, a band from Tokyo who come across like some high-energy acid-drenched hard-rock version of Devo. Their cover of "My Sharona" has to be heard to be believed. ]

[ 4 - Not to mention hopefully slow (if not halt) my alarming rush into the territory of Porky-bastardville; I really have to accept I can't just eat crap every week and expect to still shoehorn myself into 32" jeans without restricting my breathing. ]