Kill Ugly Radio | Frank Zappa & Elsewhere: Frank Zappa news, weird links, lumpy gravy. Wanna bun?

In May 2003 we reported about an upcoming live onstage adaptation of Thing-Fish. Today, my inbox tells me a book is being written about the production:

Rumours have it that the author of the book has completed the first bunch of chapters describing the events leading up to the first production in Liverpool 2001. Expect insights into castings, copyright procedures, mask-making and the secret potatoe-mash baking instructions, hitherto only known to very evil princes.

Stay tuned as your humble narrator *might* just possibly be involved in the making…

Posted in Books, Frank Zappa, Zappa Misc | 1 Comment »

All true excerpts from stories submitted to Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, such as:

Instinctively, without thinking about it, he grabbed the woman and hugged her and then gave her breasts a couple of playful pinches. “Commander please,” she said as she blushed and began yodeling.

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This is The End:

I love Junichiro Tanizaki’s The Makioka Sisters but, even allowing for cultural differences, it has to have the most peculiar final sentence in all literature: “Yukiko’s diarrhoea persisted through the twenty-sixth, and was a problem on the train to Tokyo.” That is not the way one wants to finish a book before giving a happy sigh and putting the light out.

Posted in Books | 1 Comment »

61 Bands and their corresponding Authors. Some good ones:

• Kate Bush — James Joyce
• The Beatles — Roald Dahl
• Captain Beefheart — Allen Ginsburg
• Green Day — Dan Brown
• Steely Dan — Raymond Chandler
• Yes — H.P. Lovecraft

… which of course begs the question: Frank Zappa — ? ? ?

Posted in Books, Music | 16 Comments »

Have an idea for a science-fiction novel? This free online book might be of help — from story-development to creating plots, characters, aliens and worlds. (via bb)

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A letter from science-fiction author Philip K. Dick to the FBI:

[...] several months ago I was approached by an individual who I have reason to believe belonged to a covert organization involving politics, illegal weapons, etc., who put great pressure on me to place coded information in future novels “to be read by the right people here and there,” as he phrased it.

Posted in Bizarre, Books | Comments Off

Kevin of Diseased Wits passed on the Book Meme baton to me a couple of days ago. You can read my responses over at moonbug dot org (which is basically the place where I post whatever doesn’t fit here). I would be interested to know which books you guys have been reading recently…

Posted in Books, Personal | 8 Comments »

If William Faulkner were writing on the Bush White House:

“Go and get him Saddam’s gun,” Condi said. “You know how he likes to hold it.”
Dick went to my desk drawer and took out Saddam’s gun. He gave it to me, and it was hot in my hands. Rummy pulled the gun away.
“Do you want him carrying a gun into the press conference?” Rummy said. “Can’t you think any better than he can?”

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Unsurprisingly, I am, in fact, probably — yet unwittingly — and although I’m not really a writer per sé — guilty of many of these agonizing writer’s mistakes, no really.

Posted in Amusing, Books | 1 Comment »

Three great sketchblogs, as a reminder that I need to get off my lazy ass and start drawing again:

1. Robot Johnny
2. Diseased Wits
3. De Derde Belg

Oh, and you won’t regret buying this either.

Posted in Books, Comics | 1 Comment »

Judge a book… by its cover — a big and fabulous collection of 70s pulp book covers.

Posted in Books, Pop Cult | 3 Comments »

Here’s a cool trailer for the upcoming animated adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s “A Scanner Darkly“. Why oh why does every single science-fiction movie these days have to have Keanu Reeves in it, I wonder?

Posted in Books, Film | 5 Comments »

David Walley has an article up on New Partisan with his take on the late great Hunter S. Thompson.

Posted in Books, Pop Cult | 1 Comment »

Author/cult-figure Hunter S. Thompson, most known for his “Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas”, has apparently commited suicide at his Colorado home yesterday.

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The case for ALL CAPS in favor of exclamation marks. I tend to agree, actually.

Posted in Amusing, Books, Pop Cult | 4 Comments »