Ah, the wild synchronicities of modern life! This is one of those weeks where I appear to be doing a gazillion out-of-the-house things at once – or, if not at once, very close together.

Are-Eee-Ess-Pee-Eee-See-Tea…

First up (by virtue of having already happened), I made another appearance at SF Signal for one of their Mind Meld topics. This time out the question was:

In your opinion, does literary science fiction and fantasy have mainstream respect? Why, if at all, does it need mainstream approval? What would such approval mean for genre fiction?

Do pop over to see me disassemble the question rather than giving a straight answer, and to see more sensible (not to mention concise) answers from such notables as Gene Wolfe, Ian McDonald and Paolo Bacigalupi.

A Waste of Space?

Tomorrow night (23rd October) sees me up the tracks in London… at no less a venue than the Royal Greenwich Observatory. The SciFi London people (who do such a super job of hosting the Clarke Award every year) are having an “Oktoberfest” at the Planetarium with assorted sf-nal goings-on, including a screening of the new Star Trek movie, for them what’s interested (and has tickets, presumably)).

One of the other events is a discussion panel called “A Space of Waste?”, which aims to determine “whether science fiction authors are wasting their time writing about interplanetary travel, space colonisation and the spread of mankind across the universe given everything science has taught us about the realities, possibilities and costs of doing so.” Yours truly is on the panel alongside authors Jaine Fenn, Philip Palmer and Paul McAuley… so I guess I’ll be providing the comic relief. Perhaps I should wear a silly hat?

I Like Trains and Aeroplanes

And then there’s Saturday night (24th October), which sees Aeroplane Attack playing our first “proper” support slot at the Wedgewood Rooms, supporting iLiKETRAiNS and The Strange Death Of Liberal England (the latter of whom were kind enough to hustle the promoter into giving us the gig, and who as such deserve our sincere thanks). Playing the Wedge is ace, because we can turn it up nice and loud without crippling our own hearing, and because we have room to shuffle about on stage (which is often a problem for a 5-piece rock band playing pub venues with four half-stacks and a full drum kit).

Also, the other bands are super, and it’s the night the clocks go back… so why not make a night of it if you’re in Velcro City? Tickets are cheaper from me in advance, so if you fancy coming along drop me a line and we’ll hook something up.

And if you can’t make it, be sure to have a damn good time doing something else, OK? That’s what the weekend’s for, y’know.

(Though if you could spare a moment to listen to the new Aeroplane Attack tune we’ve uploaded, that’d be jolly good of you.)

Just poking my head around the metaphorical door, here. As mentioned last week, I’ve a hectic few days on my hands:

• gig tonight;
• BSFA/SFF AGM tomorrow daytime (in London, have to be up early to get a train);
• gig tomorrow evening.

So you’ll excuse me for not waffling rubbish here this week, yeah? Cool.

Oh, but before I go: China Mieville’s The City & The City? Awesome book, really enjoyed it. Go read.

Have a good weekend!

This time next week, I’ll no doubt be sound-checking in preparation for this:

Yup, Aeroplane Attack’s first appearance at The Wedgewood Rooms, a former place of employment for three members of the band and the premier live music venue in Velcro City. And it’s a free gig on a Friday night – so if you’ve got no plans, head on down! Promises to be a night of goud loud tuneage, and I’m really looking forward to it… especially as I’ve borrowed a new echo box and am itching to deploy it over a large PA.

So, likely no FPB next week, much like last week (although my excuse last week was a train journey up to Manchester). It’s all go in my universe, as I do keep mentioning… so I’d best get on with it, eh?

Album of the week

Actually from last week, but easily good enough to carry over… it is, of course, The Eternal by Sonic Youth. If you’re a Sonic Youth fan already, you’ll be wanting to pick this up. If you’re not yet a fan, it’s accessible enough to be a good contemporary introduction to an utterly original band who’ve been gigging and recording almost as long as I’ve been alive. Go listen to ‘em.

Stuff

Yeah, look at me compressing a number of sections into one. Such is the manner of my life at the moment, and – during the scant seconds I get to sit and consider it – I’m quite enjoying it that way, thank you very much!

No review writing has been committed for a while, but I’ve been getting a decent amount of reading packed into the schedule; currently about a third of the way through China Mieville’s The City & The City, which is a good story whose premise is handled with subtlety, though I’m finding the narrative voice a bit odd at times – often enough, in fact, that I may shift to reading the published version rather than the ARC in case what I’m seeing is a pre-copyedit state.

Still plenty on my freelance plate, though the light is visible at the end of a few tunnels (even as another seems to stretch itself out further). Futurismic is rolling along nicely; we got linked to at MetaFilter the other day, and while it didn’t bring an avalanche of traffic I’m really chuffed to see us there, because I’ve been following the MeFi feed for almost as long as I’ve had an internet presence – and hence appearing there is a little like getting to have a drink in the Cheers bar would be for television fans of a certain age.

What else has been happening? Well, adventures Northward, band practices and meetings (and plain old hang-outs), live shows (like the mighty Clutch), hunting down cardboard boxes so as to ship seventy-odd kilos (SRSLY) of unwanted books to a buyer… from the sublime to the mundane, it’s all go, basically.

So there’s just time to trumpet happily about the arrival of Charlie Stross’s new short fiction collection, Wireless, which arrived in the mail this week (and will be shouldering its way up the TBR array in the days to come).

Lovely!

Now, I’ve got stuff to be doing, so I’ll bid you all a good weekend. Take care!

This week’s photo comes at two removes from myself; it was taken with the camera of the one and only Rusty Sheriff (Aeroplane Attack’s drummer), taken by Spikey Mark (barman, soundman, DJ, tour manager, Transit van pilot extraordinaire and long-term good buddy), and taken of us (Aeroplane Attack) battering out the riffage at our show on Monday:

Yes, I am in there; look in the dark patch at the right. They keep me there to prevent me scaring women and small children away from the front of the crowd.

Album of the week

Actually not an album; it’s more of an EP, and I’m not entirely sure if it’s on release as anything other than a demo. But nonetheless I commend unto you the self-titled EP by Wraptors, who play something like a combination of The Hellacopters, King Crimson and Fugazi. Post-prog’n'roll – you heard it here first, kids.

Writing about books

You’ll note how I include this section every week, just to make myself feel bad for not having done any reviewing^[1]. That said, I have actually been getting some reading in; it’s not like I’m short of stuff to talk about. Time^[2], on the other hand…

Freelance

Connecting neatly to that previous statement, everything’s still hellishly busy here in the office. This is a good thing; if there hadn’t been so many gigs to watch (and play) this week I’d probably be further ahead than I am, but next week is looking pretty sparse for extracurricular stuff, and hence ripe for some long evenings of deck-clearing. If the weather stays like it is, it’s not as if I’ll have many other options!

Futurismic

All is well at Futurismic; a good week for traffic again, and a sudden spate of posts about computer games. One of the things I like most about blogging is being in a position to see these themes bubble up out of the Zeitgeist; reminds me that the world’s just one big emergent system. Synchronicity is meaningless, but all the more beautiful and fascinating for that.

Books and magazines seen

Nothing new for a second week running. Then again, it’s been a slow week for new music arriving, as well… the music and publishing industries have their own little biorhythms, too. All part of that Zeitgeist, y’see.

Coda

As I did an Aeroplane Attack update separately, I think I’ve pretty much said my piece for the week, except to point out that playing one gig and going to watch two more in the same week is as tiring as it is fun, and it would be nice to be paid to do nothing else but make loud music or watch other people doing so. But if we were to start listing all the things that it would be nice to do for a living, we’d be here for hours! So I’ll spare us all the tedium and just wish you a good weekend – look after yourselves, OK?

[ ¹ - You'll probably also note that it doesn't seem to have any effect, unless you're of a more forgiving nature than myself. ]
[ ² - Stop me if you've heard this one before, yeah? ]

A cheery name for a cheery band, y’know:

None more black. Not really the most exciting show I’ve ever been to, either, but an experience nonetheless.

Anyway, as the title suggests there’s no proper FPB this week, I’m afraid. I’m writing this on my newly arrived Computer Of Justice, but that means there’s a lot of things to sort out. For example, can I get it to play any music? Can I, hell… soundcard recognised, drivers installed, not a note. Very frustrating.

Still, means you lot get a week off from my ramblings. Bonus! Have a good weekend, folks.

After a lengthy dry patch, the gigging season is picking up again… which makes for less embarrassing FPBs, if nothing else! Here’s a superb progressive post-metal band called Brenda, playing last Saturday in a tiny venue by Southsea seafront:

Truly awesome in every way, and I’m not just saying that. Imagine Jeff Buckley fronting Oceansize… that’s as close as you’ll get, but still not close enough.[1]

Writing about music

A relatively placid week, as fortune would have it; means I’m a little ahead of myself for next week already, which is always a great place to be. Especially considering that it’s Showcase season, which means I’ll be called upon in my judging capacity (as well as my “keeping an eye on the scene” capacity). Good old summer… well, all but the weather, anyway.

Album of the week

Technically it’s an EP, but it’s still the best of the week – the Nightmares of the Ocean EP by The Arusha Accord. Very intense UK progressive metalcore, great stuff.

Writing about books

Some notes and frameworking toward the Snow Crash piece have been laid to paper, but that’s about it. I’ve had my brain occupied by the first half of Farah Mendlesohn’s Rhetorics of Fantasy, which is extremely interesting so far – not necessarily as a prescriptive document, but more as a useful toolkit, as well as a chance to see the more academically-rooted form of criticism[2] being done. Learning a lot, which is good.

Freelance

Well, the first website redesign project is all but finished; just waiting on some final feedback on functionality before I can whisk an invoice off into the aether for it and show it to the world. Feels good, I tell ya.

Another source of work has been confirmed as well, in that I’ll be reporting on novel manuscripts for an organisation that shall remain nameless. It’s not great money, and I expect much of the reading will be pretty dire… but hey, income is income. Just call me Mr Can-Do![3]

Futurismic

We’re in the process of email-exchanging contracts for next month’s Futurismic story, which is another corker, and something a bit different – a dark corporate satire, with death rays!

Otherwise, all rolls on much as usual – up to and including the increasingly prevalent downtime problems. This, coupled with the fact that I’ll need more hosting space as my client base grows, has led me to setting up with a new hosting company; I’m currently waiting for the transfer of the domain names to finish, and then I’ll be upping sticks and leaving NetPivotal long behind.

It’s kinda sad, because they’ve given the best customer service I’ve yet had from a hosting outfit… but as I remarked to Darren a while ago, the best customer service in the world is no use whatsoever if you can’t actually connect to the server where your site is supposed to be located. Another internet company that expanded too fast, I’m guessing. Selah.

Books and magazines seen

This week we have a soupçon of poetry in the form of the latest issue of Obsessed With Pipework.

Also in this week’s mail from Orbit (along with a bunch of fantasy titles that’ll be put aside for my mother, who is threatening to start some sort of reading group in her village up north with all the freebies I’ve been bunging her way) is a very nicely made hardback ARC of Ken MacLeod’s forthcoming title, The Night Sessions:

As a youth I never thought I’d hear myself say it, but in the last few years I’ve said it nearly every week: I have too many good books to read.[4]

Apologia

It’s been pretty dead here but for links posts, hasn’t it? And there’s me above describing a relatively calm-seeming week… well, suffice to say there is a degree of turmoil beneath the surface, and I’ve had a slew of unglamorous things to do that are part of the lot of the freelance[5]. I can’t promise an immediate return to greater VCTB output, but I hope I’ll not be quite so quiet in weeks to come as I have been of late.

Coda

And that’s your fix of FPB from PGR for this week. I’m spoiled for choice this evening – the pub as usual, or perhaps a bunch of local bands at The Wedgewood Rooms? Friday being Friday, I shall play it as it comes, I think… though you can rest safe in the assumption that right now I’m going to go fetch The Friday Curry, as is right, proper and preordained.

Have a great weekend, ladies and gents, and here’s hoping the weather isn’t as crap as the Met Office is promising. Hasta luego, amigos!

[ 1 - Play close attention to the guitarist on the right, who is slapping the strings instead of strumming. Sounds great through a delay modeller, y'know, especially on a solid-bridge special edition Fender Jaguar. ]

[ 2 - As opposed to the seat-of-the-pants bootstap bluffing type of which yours truly is a proponent. ]

[ 3 - Actually, please never call me that ever. At least not when I'm there to hear it. ]

[ 4 - There are worse afflictions, though, eh? ]

[ 5 - Accounting! Administrivia! And other stuff you can't bill anyone else for! ]

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. ]

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.]

[tags]friday, photo, Minus The Bear, band, gig, live, writing, music, books, blather[/tags]

What a rotten week for weather, eh? It’s turned quite clear today, but there’s been little opportunity for taking pictures outdoors in the last seven days.

So, it’s lucky I got some half-way decent shots at the Electric Eel Shock show last weekend, isn’t it?

Yes, they’re as endearingly crazy as they look. If you like your rock and metal music – but don’t take it so seriously that you can’t stand to see it spoofed – you really must see Electric Eel Shock play live.

A friend who I took with me described it as “the most hilariously enjoyable gig I’ve seen this year”. It’s a fair description. More shots available if you’re interested.

Writing about music

As the above should make plain, I have a review of the last show of Electric Eel Shock’s European tour for you to read over at The Dreaded Press … but of course, as you’ve all subscribed already, you’ll already know about that, and the handful of other stuff that’s appeared over there in the last week or so.

The really good news is that there’s much more to come. I’m very pleased to have gotten myself onto the mailing lists of five PR outfits already. That’s small beer for the big players, but not bad going for a one-man-band site that’s two months into operations, as far as I’m concerned.

So, I’ve got a stack of material with forthcoming release dates that I need to get reviewed, which means I’ll have to start incrementally pulling back on the writing I do for other sites. Which is kind of a shame, as I’ve become rather fond of the discipline of doing it .. but onwards and upwards is the way.

I’m off out again this Sunday to a local show by a young band called Not Advised, and I’ll be interviewing them also. That’ll be my first face-to-face interview off my own back for my own site! Yay!

In the pipeline (sometime after the New Year passes) will be a chin-wag with Justin Broadrick, formerly of Napalm Death and Godflesh, currently of depleted-uranium-shoegaze-metal band Jesu – I’m looking forward to that one, I can tell you.

Other interview news – I’ve sent off a batch of questions to Sir Hank of Rollins, and am eagerly awaiting the responses. The PR sent the first draft back, because I included about three times as many questions as he’d have the time spare to answer …

Writing about books

I’ve been shown the preliminary typeset PDFs of my Iain Banks article, and I have to say I’m fairly pleased with it. You lot will have to wait for the next issue of Interzone before you can give me any feedback, of course …

Otherwise, no reviewing to report this week, as I’ve been busy wrangling with music deadlines. But for the first time in ages I have no outstanding or pressing deadlines of a literary nature, which has given me the chance to (gasp!) read a book just because I wanted to.

I’m not complaining, because I love my reviewing work, but it’s strangely liberating to walk up to your shelf and think “hmm, what do I fancy?” The [holiday which shall remain unnamed] break (which I will be spending in the tranquillity of the Yorkshire countryside) promises to be a catch-up reading binge of truly satisfying proportions. wh00t!

Of course, in the meantime I need to figure out how to deal with the Interzone reviews section in light of the seasonal postal delays …

Books and magazines received

No hay libros o revistas esta semana. Apesadumbrado, amigos.

Coda

Well, if (comparative) brevity is a virtue, this is one of the more virtuous FPBs of recent times. It always feels odd to have little to report, and somehow a little disappointing … what that says about my personal psychology, I have no wish to know in detail.

I’m working on this “content to be myself” thing right now, and at the times it fully clicks into gear I can see why people who are good at it make a point of recommending it. Practice will (hopefully) make perfect – or as near to perfect as is possible in an imperfect universe, eh?

Enough blather – I have things to do, and I expect those of you who are still reading this far down the page probably have things to do as well (no matter how well you may have convinced yourself otherwise).

So, before setting off on the traditional jaunt to collect The Friday Curry Of Intestinal Righteousness And Olfactory Justice, I will bid you all a good weekend – have fun, ladies and gents.