Many of the writers involved in the Writer's Workshops at this year's WorldCon are passing the word, and I may as well too, as it's not listed on the WorldCon site for some reason:

Lookee here at this post for more information about the workshops!


That said...I'm tempted to do it again this year. The last time I was involved, I'd handed in an earlier version of Love Like Blood and though it needed work, it went over well. At the moment dancinghorse has a hold of a few of the chapters for another once-over. I could be tempted to send it in again, but I'd like to try something else...

I'm thinking perhaps the first few chapters of A Division of Souls. My only worry about that is that I've had a few people suggest I do something else with the opening...they're not sure why Nehalé's scene is in there (for various reasons--why show him, when he doesn't pop up again for another few chapters? Don't you know editors HATE prologues? And my favorite: We already know he's behind this now...why do we even need to read the rest now?), but I have to answer back: as far as I can see, it kinda has to be there, or else the rest of the story doesn't really make sense. But I digress...

It's something to think about...I've got a few days before the deadline, so I'll think about it and see if I want to join in again.

see more Political Pictures

I've been around the dial so many times, but you're not there
Somebody tells me that you've been taken off the air
Well, you were my favorite DJ, since I can't remember when
You always played the best records, you never followed any trend
FM, AM, where are you?
You gotta be out there somewhere on the dial...
--The Kinks, "Around the Dial"


(Hat tip to head58 for pointing this out this morning via email...)

WBCN is losing its terrestrial station as of August 19.

Those of you in the New England area probably know 104.1 FM as one of the biggest mainstays of rock radio in Boston for YEARS. Its first broadcast was March 15, 1969, playing Cream's "I Feel Free". A fitting first song to play, come to think of it, considering their original format was progressive freeform, much like how New York City's WNEW started (actually, within a few years of each other). They changed to album-oriented rock in the mid-seventies, classic rock in the eighties, and a foray into various versions of alternative rock in the nineties up to today. It was also Boston's outlet for Howard Stern, one of the premier stations for local bands to get their start, and one of the best stations to broadcast local live shows.

It was also a station full of very well-known DJs and production teams, including Peter Wolf (of the J. Geils Band--his online moniker was Wolfa Goofa with the Green Teeth--yes, that's where it comes from), JJ Jackson (of early MTV fame), and Billy West (the Ren & Stimpy voice actor), as well as locally-familiar names Charles Laquidara, Nik Carter, Duane Bruce, Matt Siegal, Oedipus, Carter Alan, Bill Abbate, overnight guy Albert O, and Mark Parenteau...I'm sure some of you recognize those names if you listened to Boston radio as much as I did.

I always thought of 'BCN as the older frat-dude brother of Boston radio--the station that knew the rules but broke them anyway and got away with it (for the most part), the station that demanded to be cranked up, the one that always sounded like it was being broadcast in the back room of someone's house while the rest of the place was partying it up. In my years living in Boston, I spent most of them listening to WFNX, but between 1993 and 1995, I'd switch between the two. WFNX's music selection had started getting repetitive, and 'BCN's newly minted alt.rock playlist had a much wider selection that I could really groove to. I listened to the station almost exclusively in the summer of '95 when I was living at the Allston apartment, staying up way too late playing Solitaire and writing True Faith and its variants, and having a good time despite being broke most of the time. I also remember the day Carter Alan--the man who, by the way, championed U2 in the States back in 1980 when no one else would play them--had the world premiere of their song "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" from the Batman Forever soundtrack.

I still have some of the radio tapes from that summer, most of which were indeed taped off of that station. Songs that I equate with that summer, and thus with WBCN:
--U2, "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me"
--Ned's Atomic Dustbin, "All I Ask of Myself Is That I Hold Together" and "Stuck"
--Belly, "Super-connected" and "Now They'll Sleep"
--White Zombie, "More Human Than Human"
--Radiohead, "High & Dry" and "Fake Plastic Trees"
--Weezer, "Buddy Holly", "My Name is Jonas", and "Undone (the Sweater Song)"
--Presidents of the USA, "Lump"
--Silverchair, "Tomorrow"
--Hum, "Stars"
--Filter, "Hey Man, Nice Shot"
--Everclear, "Santa Monica"
--Soul Asylum, "Misery"
--Blur, "Girls & Boys"
--Foo Fighters, pretty much their entire first album
--Garbage, "Vow"

I'll admit that I rarely if ever listened to the station once I moved back to Athol, mostly due to the fact that the station didn't come in that far out in the state. I've popped onto their website and listened to the streaming station now and again, and they still play the rock music I expect from them. They've even re-embraced the classic rock they were known for in the 70s and 80s, incorporating Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, and all the staples you'd expect (come on, any Boston straight-ahead rock station worth their salt HAS to play Aerosmith, right?).

But I have to say that it's kind of sad to see such an institution fading away...I know most stations have done this by now--WNEW is nowhere near the station it used to be--and it's pretty much par for the course in the radio business, but still...I'm sure it'll be strange for people to land on 104.1 and not hear rock anymore. It'll be replaced by its sister station WBMX, playing "hot adult contemporary". Can't get any further from the original than that.

WBCN will still be playing rock at their website, and for the most part I think that looks like where most stations are going that are still terrestrial but aren't satellite yet.

Still...shocking to see them go...and they will be missed on the dial. :(

More chapters available over at edencycle! :)

Charles N. Brown passed away. :(

The first time I met him at one of the cons, I thought he was kind of a Grumpy Gus, but the more I heard about him and saw how well he ran Locus, the more I was impressed by him. He will be missed! :(

Why yes, more chapters at edencycle for your enjoyment! More coming soon! :)

Tickets for Donizetti's Daughter of the Regiment just went on sale today and WE GOT TICKETS! :D We kind of figured they'd go quick because this one's a big deal... :)

That, and this one was the primary reason we'd originally wanted to buy season tickets, so we could see this one...that idea fell through, but we're happy we got this one! :)

Hey all, as promised, three more chapters at edencycle! :)

Hey now! More Chapters up at edencycle! :)

This is totally us. Okay, Us if we were good and sounded like more like Tones on Tail. But that is so a riff that I'd have come up with. ;)

So instead of playlists (read: old compilations recreated as playlists), I listened to a few albums from this past decade this morning--

--Air, The Virgin Suicides OST. Not the soundtrack with all the 70s stuff on it, but the one by Air that sounds like it was from the 70s. Short but really good, if a bit unsettling.
--Radiohead, Kid A. Hmm. Doesn't hold up after a good number of years, further proving that I'm more of a Bends/OK Computer fan. Not a big fan of their current output, though Hail to the Thief wasn't too bad...
--Poe, Haunted. STILL love this album loads. And now I want to pick up House of Leaves and start reading it again. :p
--Titan AE soundtrack. Nothing amazingly good, but a lot of fun.

And something more current:
--Moby, Wait for Me. I like this one! It's very close to Play in sound and atmosphere, only these are all the slow songs (think "Porcelain" or "Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad").

I gots anime coming! Just got an email from Amazon saying their stuff from their Anime Sale is on its way!


First: The complete box set of Paniponi Dash!


This one ranks right up there with Bo Bo-Bo-Bo Bo Bo-Bo in sheer volume of silly WTFness. It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, but it's funny as hell. I can only watch a few episodes before I start getting headaches from laughing so much. :)


Secondly:
complete box set of Ergo Proxy:


WTFness in a serious, meta sort of way, and still not entirely sure what it's about, but we rented this via Netflix and I LOVE it. Also? Episodes named after Douglas Coupland novels. And also? BEST. THEME SONG. EVER. (And also also? Brilliant move using Radiohead's "Paranoid Android" as the closing theme. ;) )


And third:

Tokyo Godfathers...another brilliant work by Satoshi Kon. Now if I can just get around to finding a cheap copy of the Paranoia Agent series, I think we'll have most everything of his available in the US...

YAY for anime! :D

Can someone else on my f-list post something, anything so the latest item isn't lynxreign's horrendously bad joke? It's been staring at me for a good hour or so. :p

Yep, More chapters! Four more for your enjoyment, finishing off another plot wave. Including one chapter I'm really proud of. :)

(Note: forgot an lj-cut when I first posted it, sorry if I accidentally borked someone's f-list. It's since been fixed. :) )

New chapters up at edencycle for your enjoyment. Three--count 'em--three chapters! :)

Yeah, we pretty much passed on going to Amoeba today. Being that we finally got to uninterrupted sleep sometime around 1am, we're both too lazy to do anything other than some necessary errands, most of which we've already done. No big, we'll go at a later time...for now, some random updates:

--Most likely will go to Borderlands on the 18th (two Saturdays from now), as jaylake is going to be signing there and I really want to pick up Green.

--As said, nearly all errands done. Just need to do laundry, vacuum the apartment (which takes all of ten or so minutes to do--the good thing about a small place!), and run the dishwasher.

--I'm not sure, but I think the people across the street--you know, the guy I talk about who stands in front of his window for hours on end, either staring or talking on his phone, and I swear he's watching me--look like they're moving out. I can't be sure, but there seems to be packing going on in that apartment.

--In a related note, the quiet, unassuming woman that lived next door to us (not the couple across the hall) that we've only ever seen in person maybe three times since we've been here, seems to have moved out as well. We can see into her apartment from one of our windows and it looks empty.

--Also related, I'm seeing a strangely large number of empty apartments here. But to be honest, this is normal this time of year, when all the kids move out at the end of their college year. On the plus side, I've seen our management showing people apartments all the time, so at least business is moving.

--One of our local channels played How I Won the War last night. I'd forgotten just how absurdly weird this movie was... :p

--Amazon's having an anime dvd sale! YAY! Going to order the Paniponi Dash and Ergo Proxy box sets!

--I just started reading The Lord of the Rings, after not picking up the books since 7th grade (and even then, I didn't get far). I find it a bit unnerving that I found myself geeked out by the "Notes on the Text" and author's foreword about how he wrote it? I haven't even gotten to the novels themselves yet. And why do I get the sinking feeling I'm going to feel all this nerd love for the books? This may or may not be a good thing... O_O

--If I have the time, I may post a few more edencycle chapters. I'll let you know when I do. :)


That's it for now. Hope everyone has a swell weekend! :)

So ASCAP is considering making AT&T and Verizon charge for their ringtones on the basis that it's a "public performance".

Seriously? I think it would make more sense to charge those guys with the woofered-out cars and the motorcycles with the audio setups that drive past my apartment every day. I'd say that hearing some cheapass rap rattling my windows for minutes at a time while they're waiting for the light to change constitutes more of a public performance than six seconds of someone's ringtone.

Yup. 11:30pm and the streets are still PACKED with cars. We ain't gettin' any sleep for a while longer... :p

OH! And if I can figure out how to edit and upload it, I'll see if I can upload the fireworks I filmed using my camera. :p

Two songs that influenced my bass playing.



Wire, "A Touching Display" (original version on 154; this is from a Rockpalast show)



Cocteau Twins, "For Phoebe Still a Baby" (not official video, song is on Blue Bell Knoll)


Both, as you've noticed, have the bass played more as a second (or third) guitar rather than just an underlying rhythm guitar, playing melodies rather than just lines. Not quite like the method of New Order's Peter Hook (who, if he isn't playing straight bass, plays it like he's soloing), this style is more laid back. I learned how to play bass by listening and playing along to these two albums, among others, but Wire's Graham Lewis and Cocteau Twins' Simon Raymonde were a big influence.

According to the SF transportation site, looks like they might actually close our street tomorrow! This is rather interesting, considering how much traffic comes through every Fourth of July. It usually starts mid-afternoon with a lot of people coming in looking for parking (and a LOT of foot traffic coming down the hill from Chinatown and other points south), and they close the most northern east-west streets one by one as the day goes on. Bay (the east-west cross street outside our window) usually gets partially closed, or at least slows down...but gets SERIOUSLY backed up post-fireworks. Like I'd said earlier, the fireworks are usually over by 9:30 or 10pm, but the traffic doesn't let up for another two hours.

I'm not entirely sure where the traffic will go, since Bay is the most northern main thoroughfare that's busy, and the only one that really connects between the Embarcadero and Van Ness, the two big north-south thoroughfares. Not that I'm complaining, though...would be nice to have a quiet street! One of the worst things we get each year is people honking horns because they're not moving on a green light (even though there's five cars stuck in the intersection that can't go anywhere--yeah, our drivers here in CA are funny that way), hopefully no traffic will be nice... :)

Well, that is until post-fireworks, when all the foot traffic heads back south up the hill again. Your typical loud shenanigans (but thankfully no violence/desctruction, at least not since we've been here), which can get annoying after awhile. But I think I can handle that. ;)