Set the controls for the heart of the stash! Here’s the keyboard guy of wig-out psych-rock space-cadets Pilgrim Fathers. He’s evidently not down with the whole “standing-up” thing:

T’was a good show on Wednesday night, with Pilgrim Fathers and the oh-so-controversial-no-really Gay For Johnny Depp* supporting the staggeringly good 65daysofstatic.

However, it seems that when I get sent to interview an act something bad happens to them - Pilgrim Fathers caught a flat tyre on the motorway that afternoon, and only arrived at the venue an hour before doors. Needless to say, the interview is being rescheduled …

Writing about music

The second week of full-time day-job mania has meant keeping up with The Dreaded Press has been a strain once again, but here we are at another Friday and I seem to have survived with deadlines and sanity (marginally) intact.

Album of the week was probably the audio insanity of iots by flu.ID - be warned, it’s not for the faint-hearted.

Writing about books

I have, somehow, managed to crowbar a first draft of the Severian Of The Guild review into my schedule this week**. The challenge will lie in making it plain that, while I personally found the crescendo of Biblical allegory to be incredibly wearisome and off-putting, I’m not the sort of person who thinks religious themes have no place in literature at all. Hoping to go over it a second time this weekend.

Finished reading Walter Jon Williams’ Implied Spaces last weekend; will be squeezing a VCTB review out as soon as schedule permits.

Freelance stuff

As some of you may have already noticed, the other aspect of my expanding freelance duties has been announced - I’m the new webgeek and online publicity personage for PS Publishing! Thanks to everyone who has already sent their congratulations, it’s very kind of you. I have an awful lot to live up to as I step into Darren’s shoes.

Of course, I’ll feel a lot more like I’m actually doing these jobs once I get back to having the time to get started on them*** … but still, yay me! More details on this when (a) I have them and (b) I can think straight.

Books and magazines seen

The Yen Press manga imprint continues to baffle with their polar-opposite themes; one book on raising an autistic child, the other a sniggering smutfest of obvious gags about a demon and a sexually-stereotyped Japanese schoolgirl who have accidentally swapped bodies. Go figure.

Also from Orbit comes a new Jeff Somers novel, The Digital Plague, as well as cookie-cutter vampire-shagger number fourteen from the high queen of vampire-shaggers … fourteen books? Empirical proof that quality and popularity are completely unrelated properties, if such were needed. Will nobody think of the trees?

I’ve been given an interesting non-fiction title for a long-deadline Vector review: Love And Sex With Robots by David Levy.

Promises to be an interesting read, that’s for certain. Robot-shaggers > vampire-shaggers.

Coda

Well, I’m exhausted. A fortnight of full-time work plus all my other commitments has worn me out thoroughly, and if it weren’t for the amazing ability of caffeine to prop up the otherwise unconscious, I’d not have made it through at all.

I was under the (sadly erroneous) impression that I had this coming Monday off work, but it turns out that isn’t the case - it will in fact be my final full day before my colleague returns from her holiday. Still, I can manage just one more day … though I feel I’ll be doing a whole lot of sleeping this weekend.

It’s either that or have some sort of breakdown; much like the ILLUMINATIONS episode, I’ve been gamely skating along the cliff-edge of my ability to cope under pressure, but I know that I need to rest properly or risk the consequences. I’m aware that learning (and testing) your limits is a good thing, but from where I’m sat right now I could do without it … at least for the next six months or so while I settle into the new regime of the freelance****.

But I’ll not complain - things seem to be going pretty well, and if hecticness is a symptom of positive change then I guess I can live with it. It’s just that I’ll live with it a bit better once I’ve had a long lay down in a dark room.

Anyway, enough of my jabber - I can’t think of anything entertaining or interesting to say. I’m going to take my aching shoulders and itchy eyes around the corner to fetch another Hard-earned And Much-anticipated Friday Curry Of Justice before steeling myself for a weekend of catching up with all the little things I’ve had to let slide this last fortnight.

I hope that you have a good weekend yourself … hopefully one blessed with weather somewhat less rotten than today’s, too.

Hasta luego, amigos.

[ ** I honestly can't remember writing any of it, which is quite scary ... but there it is in my Google Docs account. Home espresso makers are dangerous things, kids. ]

[ *** SRSLY. Sixteen hour days have been killing me. ]

[ **** So why do I still crank out a few pages of blather for FPB every week? Because routine is an anchor for sanity, basically. This actually relaxes me, and I can do it piecemeal. ]

I smell serious memetic potential - you can blame Jeff VanderMeer*.

So - you can assemble a rock band out of science fiction authors living or dead. Who do you pick, what do they call themselves, and what’s their signature cover version? [image by flashbacks.com]

***

Shaper and the Mechanists

Drums: M. John Harrison. The guy’s got rhythm - rock climbing’s all about timing. Plus drummers are often way more poetic and thoughtful than the cliches would suggest.

Bass: Charlie Stross. I suspect very strongly that, given half a chance, Charlie could get his groove on in a fearsome way. Rock-star facial hair a bonus.

Keys: William Gibson. He wouldn’t do riffs and melodies so much as pads and atmospheres; a kind of post-rock approach. Will gradually accumulate a vast bank of interconnected effects and found-sound devices by poking around in Cash Converters in each town the band plays.

Rhythm guitar: Rudy Rucker. Already has experience with the instrument, and knows a good riff when he writes one. Could probably out-Townsend Pete Townsend with his power chords.

Lead guitar: Neal Stephenson. Aloof, idiosyncratic, a unique style often imitated but never duplicated. Like Charlie Stross, not averse to rock-star facial hair. Also a fan of Soundgarden, so must know what good guitar lines sound like.

Backing vox/posturing/inexplicable extra stage presence (aka “Bez“): Cory Doctorow. Give him a megaphone and a silly hat, feed him up with … er, sugary foods and caffeine? … and just let him do his thing. Guaranteed to PWN hecklers and get the crowd moving.

Lead vox/songwriter: Bruce Sterling**. He may not have the perfect voice, but every single song would be about something important, and you’d find new meaning with every listen. Inter-song banter would be awesome.

Tour manager: Hunter S Thompson. OK, so not a science fiction writer, but I figure I can have one genre-breaker. No one is going to stiff the band on a deal with HST handling the biz. Plus the band will stay largely drug-free, because all illicit substances will be “headed off at the pass”, so to speak.

A&R guy: Harlan Ellison. Typecasting, I guess.

Cover version: “We’re In This Together” - Nine Inch Nails. Simply because it’s an awesome tune.

***

Damn; I really want to see this band now. Maybe the band I joined recently could be the support act!

[ * Not just for this post, either - you could try to pin the decline of postmodern culture and the sub-prime crisis on him too. It wouldn't be very fair, though, let alone true. ]

[ ** This was a foregone conclusion, of course. Fanboy is as fanboy does. ]

Those of you who like my live music photography are in luck; those of you not so keen have probably been longing for periods with steady sunny weather wherein I have more time on my hands. Sorry!

This is the bizarrely-named Grog, singer and bass-player of a three-piece band called Die So Fluid:

Don’t be put off by the pseudo-goth fetish outfit; their music is straight-up chunky alt-rock, close to the metallic end as far as heaviness is concerned, and wow - she can really sing. Proper gutsy vocals, none of your Gwen Stefani schlock.

Go check ‘em out on MySpazz if you don’t believe me - great band, live and on record.

Writing about music

The results of my night out in Southampton last week can be seen above, at least in part; Die So Fluid [live review] were supporting My Ruin [live review], who I also interviewed.

The pictures of the My Ruin set were unfortunately awful, thanks to a combination of poor lighting, low-end dSLR, a push-and-shove mosh pit … and my lack of ability to compensate for all three of them. Life’s a learning curve, eh?

Another busy week for CD reviews, but there’s a sort of pang about it - by Sunday, I will have finished my last weekly batch of reviews for sites other than my own.

I’ll still be writing for Subba-Cultcha and Pennyblack on an occasional basis, but I’ve reached a point where I need to devote all my music writing time to The Dreaded Press. The work is coming in steadily, and I need to stay on top of it.

But in the spirit of assessing ones achievements, it’s pretty impressive to me that in less than twelve full months writing for those two sites I’ve managed to rack up over 250 pieces of work (if you include the ones yet to be published).

You’d be forgiven for not believing me - I find it quite astonishing myself - but you can see the proof as a list of items tagged with my name at del.icio.us.

Crikey.

Writing about books

Minimal once again; see above. Will hopefully pick up steam again; see above. I did manage to get the latest Interzone review offers list out of the electronic door, though.

I sent a re-polished edit of my review of McDonald’s Brasyl to Andy Sawyer at Foundation; he seems pretty pleased with it, and reckons it will only need further trimming if the other pending material is equally excessive in length.

I don’t know if you remember me whining on about how immensely frustrated I was at being unable to hammer that particular leviathan of a review into shape at the time*?

Well, here’s a lesson for my self-critical facilities - with some relatively minor edits, it actually read fairly well. Amazing what a distance of a few months can make - I now understand the fiction writer’s advice about leaving stories fallow before editing them.

Currently reading Gene Wolfe’s Severian Of The Guild, and enjoying it immensely - although I can see a lot of reasons it might infuriate others. It reminds me of Mervyn Peake, though, and it’ll take a lot of frustration to dull that particular shine as far as I’m concerned.

As for analysing it from a reviewer’s perspective, however, I have no idea where I’ll even start. That said, I’ve not even finished the first book of four yet.

Other stuff

Much to the great frustration of a vocal minority of readers who have actually made a point of asking me about it**, the Great Pending Announcement will not be made today - it will be made on Monday 11th, for reasons that should become clear when the announcement is made.

But the way forward is clear and unobstructed - or at least as unobstructed as it’s going to get. Keep watching the skies.

Books and magazines seen

Zero on the fresh literature front this week, with the arguable exception of some very smutty manga from Yen Press that has no real literary merit that I can discern.

Let me be plain - I’m in no way opposed to the sale of smut (I’d be a hypocrite if I were), but sheesh - either give it a decent plot or stop pretending, y’know? An absolute endorsement of the adage that something labelled “not suitable for minors” might as well be labelled “will only be of interest to minors, mostly male”.

The end of an era twice over, too - picked up the final instalments of Doug Rushkoff’s Testament and Brian K Vaughn’s Y: The Last Man.

Y:TLM is a great piece of science fiction, though I’m sure the film they’re threatening to make will strip all the good bits out.

To fill the small but poignant gap that my only two running comic subscriptions have created by ending, I’ve put a couple of Warren Ellis titles on order. Yay!

TTAcon

It is my intent to head up to the Big Smoke by train tomorrow for TTAcon 9, a gathering of folk connected to TTA Press, be they staff or readers.

It’s being held at a pub called Filthy MacNastys near King’s Cross on Saturday 9th February - full details at the TTA website.

If you end up going along and you see me there, please make a point of saying hello - it’s nice to meet people from the intarwebs.

However, my attendance or otherwise is dependent on me clearing a bunch of writing this evening and tomorrow morning … I’m pretty sure I’m going to make it, though.

Coda

Those interested in the results of my frugality experiments will be fascinated to hear that I haven’t spent any unnecessary money since this time last week (with the obvious exception, which was declared in advance anyway).

Still not smoking, no alcohol for seven days, minor but daily exercise, early rising. It’s uncanny; I feel like I’m living someone else’s life. Part of me hopes they’ll ask for it back real soon; the other part is trying to decide how it should arrange the furniture.

But as for now I’m busy busy busy, so I’m going to wrap this up and get on with my proper work. Well, right after The Friday Curry, that is.

Hasta luego, amigos.

[ * You'd be forgiven for forgetting, because I was beginning to sound like a scratched record or a particularly uninspired televangelist. ]

[ ** This actually happened. It was very flattering - and it made me realise that I'm not the only person in the world who needs to get out more. ]

These chaps are from a band called Minus The Bear who I went to review on Monday - and who have now been added to my “how the hell did I avoid discovering them before?” list.

They do a kind of super-technical post-hardcore progressive thing, but with very minimal distortion … and a lot of delay and effects, as should be obvious.

Really great stuff - go take a listen. “Knights” is a winner.

I know that’s technically a very flawed photo, but I really liked the way the one guy is motion blurred when everything else is sharp. Kinda captures the atmosphere a bit.

I still can’t get good results in colour; I think I need a faster lens or something. Still, black and white is classy.

More photos here - advice and criticism welcome.

Writing about music

Yeah, so I reviewed a show on Monday, and it was very good indeed. This week has been mostly killing off pending deadlines before [holiday which shall remain nameless], with little in the way of published stuff - I think it’s being held back for the next few weeks.

Editors are sensible people*.

Writing about books

No concrete work in the LitCrit department, I’m afraid.

I’m currently reading M. John Harrison’s Light and applying post-it notes to pages in my usual fashion, but I don’t think I stand a chance of even scratching the surface of it in a review.

Reading Light is like being a rainforest dweller dumped into the middle of New York - you know it’s an awesome work of genius, but it’s completely beyond you describe the individual functional parts and explain how it all fits together.

Also in the process of compiling the inevitable “best books of 2007″ pieces for various outlets, which is why I probably won’t bother posting one on VCTB - there’ll be one in Vector, one on Strange Horizons and one in Interzone (plus a simple list at SF Site), if you’re really curious about my opinions.

Speaking of SF Site, my review of Adam Roberts’ Headless went live over there. Doctor Roberts seems to be quite happy with it (but then you can never be sure - it’s the clever way he writes, you see).

Writing about other stuff

Zip. Still faffing about learning web-dev stuff like PHP, trying to dredge up my memories of object-orientated programming from my teens.

Programming is just like riding a bike - you never entirely forget how it’s done, but if you leave it in the shed for years it gets horribly rusty and looks very dated and clunky compared to everyone else’s**.

Books and magazines seen

No magazines this week. But in magazine-related news, you may well be aware that you can now get Interzone electronically from Fictionwise - I may well give that a try once my paper sub runs out.

Last week’s red-card parcel delivery was (as I suspected) an Orbit item, and one that looks rather interesting:

So that’s going on holiday with me in the coming week; I think it deserves a crack of the whip.

It certainly looks more promising than the plentiful vampire-boffing stuff (another of which arrived this week, in the company of a brace of fantasies).

Coda

Blimey, the year is almost over. I’ll refrain from musing and sentiment - partly because I’m not good at sentiment, and partly because there’s stuff I need to get done this evening so I can trundle off up north for a few days.

I will say this, though - I’m not a fan of [unnamed holiday] myself, but nor am I a humbug. So I hope that all of you have whatever sort of winter-centric festival and celebration it is you like best, in the company of people you care about and doing things you like doing.

But I bet you all envy me - I get to celebrate tomorrow’s solstice by spending ten hours on a coach! Yeah, beeyotches; you see me rollin’ - you hatin’.

But like I say, there are things to be done - not least of which being the observation of my own personal religious ritual, namely the procurement and consumption of The (Festive) Friday Curry. But first, I’d better go collect my laundry …

Have a good holiday, ladies and gents.

[** In case you're interested, I offer services in metaphor mangling and analogy overextension at extremely reasonable rates.]

A little live music action for this week’s FPB. This is a shot of the superb band iLiKETRAiNS in action at the Joiners Arms in Southampton on 13th September (last night):

Suffice to say they’re far better musicians than I am a photographer. The demands of shooting live music are many, and I’m still fumbling around at the bottom of the learning curve. I have, at least, discovered that an excess of red stage lighting is best dealt with by taking shots in black and white … which is quite apropos for iLiKETRAiNS, although given their propensity for writing songs about historical characters and events, sepia-tint would probably be even better.

Added bonus plant blogging! - after waking up grumpy on Monday morning, I decided some retail therapy was in order. When I do retail therapy, I don’t go and buy shoes or clothes (two activities which, far from cheering me up, tend to stress me out even more). Oh, no. I buy plants. So here are the new additions to my extensive cactus orchard:

I love cacti (Freudian analysts, don’t let the door hit your arse on the way out, please). They come in so many different forms, and they’re such an elegant solution to the environment in which they evolved. The hairy one is just brilliant. I mean, what the hell is it hairy for? Some sort of moisture retention, I assume. Research is required …

Stuff I’ve been doing - mostly music related

Well, you already know what I was doing last night, namely interviewing and reviewing iLiKETRAiNS (lovely bunch of well-spoken young blokes, and they make astonishingly good music). Go check them out on MySpace. It was a great night out; the Joiners is a superb venue if you’re a fan of the more obscure bands, because it’s just the right size to give a really intimate feel to the shows.

That said, it’s a bit too intimate when the shows are sell-outs, but last night there was a merciful abundance of elbow-rooom - probably not such good news for the bands themselves, but much easier on the audience.

The support act, Lisa Lindley-Jones (beware: Flash-based website), was quite something as well, a sort of post-folk singer-songstress, delicate voice and clever songs. I’ll link to the review and interview in a daily link-dump once they go live (should be within a few weeks).

This was a two-gig week; Wednesday saw me down at The Wedgewood Rooms for the long-awaited return of local heroes Little London, back with a new line-up and some new songs. If you like your rock and roll fast, sweaty and drenched in whisky, you should give them a listen - though in the spirit of transparency that I maintain here at VCTB, I should make the point that I know the band members quite well, and Dev the frontman has been a friend for a number of years.

But hey, I know enough about music to see past my personal biases. I’d like Little London even if they weren’t my friends. Maybe you will too - why not give them a listen? Friday night music at its best, I assure you. Play it loud.

Apart from some snarky product blurbs for the website of Dress Code, a local alternative clothing store, this week’s writing has been almost entirely music related. The highlight was delivering my review of the forthcoming Oceansize album, Frames … though it was tricky to write. I find the same applies to book reviews - the ones you like best are the hardest to review, because the burden of justifying your subjective enthusiasm is that much heavier. Still, I can think of worse chores!

And just to cap off with the most rock and roll thing of all - I filed my first ever tax return! Go me! (Though this would be significantly more impressive had I actually had any freelance business figures to put in it … next year promises to be far more, er, entertaining.)

Books and magazines seen

It turns out my last copy of Locus wasn’t my last copy of Locus after all, but I’m assuming the one that arrived this week (September 2007) definitely is.

A bunch of stuff turned up from Orbit, most of which looks to be not my cup of tea (Laurell K Hamilton, NO-thank-you-very-much), but Jeff Somers’ Electric Church has been getting some good reviews, and has an interesting sounding premise, so that’s been added to the “provisionally-to-be-read-when-some-time-appears-out-of-nowhere-maybe” pile. Good bold cover art, also; reminds me of the Sin City graphic novel covers:

Coda

Another week drives through Velcro City at a breakneck pace - I can say with certainty that I rarely have the time to be bored these days, and that can only be a good thing. And here comes the weekend - which, having been making the effort to work hard during the week, shouldn’t demand too much writing time from me.

Of course, that said, the reviews for the next issue of Interzone are starting to trickle in, and I have a few applications from would-be bloggers for Futurismic to read through … ah, well, it’s all good. Keeps me off the streets and out of trouble!

So, time for The Friday Curry Of Legendary Justice. I hope you all have a good weekend; adios!

This particular bit of news goes all the way to eleven. That is all.