| Plath. |
[Nov. 4th, 2009|09:18 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | None or Other | ] |
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;
I lift my lids and all is born again.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)
The stars go waltzing out in blue and red,
And arbitrary blackness gallops in:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed
And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)
God topples from the sky, hell's fires fade:
Exit seraphim and Satan's men:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
I fancied you'd return the way you said,
But I grow old and I forget your name.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)
I should have loved a thunderbird instead;
At least when spring comes they roar back again.
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
(I think I made you up inside my head.) |
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| Two Horror Readings: October 30 and October 31, 2009 |
[Oct. 16th, 2009|03:07 pm] |
The code for this link graphic:
<a href="http://www.bloodletters.com/"><img src="http://www.bloodletters.com/pub/whisper2009.jpg" width="400" height="259" border="0"></a>
Friday, October 30, 8-10pm: Wayward Coffeehouse presents their annual Halloween horror reading, this time with two authors, to lead you twice as far into the dark.
ANGEL LEIGH McCOY (http://www.angelleigh.com/) is a game reviewer, game designer, and the head editor for the Wily Writers Speculative Fiction Downloads site. Her fiction has appeared in the anthologies "Ravens in the Library" and "Vile Things."
MICHAEL MONTOURE (http://www.bloodletters.com/) is the author of "Counting from Ten and Other Stories," available from Stone Pine Press. His fiction has also appeared in "Doctor Who: How the Doctor Changed My Life." "Montoure's spare, striking prose outlines characters in deliciously twisted predicaments ..." -- Seattle Weekly
Calendar links: Eventful | Facebook | Upcoming | zvents
The code for this link graphic:
<a href="http://www.bloodletters.com/"><img src="http://www.bloodletters.com/pub/feeding2009.jpg" width="400" height="259" border="0"></a>
Saturday, October 31, 8-10pm: Come enjoy terrifying stories about everyone's most basic need, at the grand opening of THE NIGHT KITCHEN, the restaurant that's finally bringing high quality late night food to downtown Seattle. (http://www.nightkitchenseattle.com/)
Calendar links: Eventful | Facebook | Upcoming | zvents |
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| Defying gravity. |
[Sep. 21st, 2009|11:49 am] |
Well, that was one heck of a decent weekend, if by "weekend" you mean some arbitrary number of days toward the end of the week which might begin on, say, Thursday, when ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) windbourne took me to a preview screening of Zombieland, which is now, seriously, one of my favorite movies ever. Even though I spent most if thinking, "You poor bastards couldn't get Michael Cera, huh?" 'Cause the lead character is totally a Michael Cera character, even if he was in fact played by Jesse Eisenberg. But, yeah, this movie is all kinds of fun.
Friday I didn't really do anything, except finally try Bluefin, which was both surprisingly good and startlingly over-priced.
Saturday, retcon and I went down to the Puyallup Fair. Slightly cornball idea, but we could both stand to get out of the house, so I thought I'd suggest it. We had a great time. I went with the intention of going on rides that were outside of my comfort zone, and that was kind of awesome. (Riff, on seeing me hook my glasses in my shirt collar: "You might want to put those in your pocket. This ride goes upside-down." Me: "Oh, okay -- wait, what?") We ate Inappropriate Food and walked around looking at stupid shopping-channel type crap and at animals. Although we didn't spend long looking at the horses, because we both lack the genetic component that makes you interested in horses. Namely, a double-X chromosome.
Afterwards, we went and did a little thrifting, to prepare for going out to the Mercury for "Class", a school-themed night. Riff put together basically an Angus Young outfit, a look that worked way, way better for him than it really should. I grabbed some black shorts, a red plaid tie and a gray sweater-vest, and in a stroke of what modesty forbids me from admitting was pure genius, a couple of Cliff's Notes.
I went home and finished the outfit off with some tall boots, a white button-down shirt, a gray blazer with a school-uniform-looking patch on it, and various pins and badges. I looked adorable. I spent the evening clutching the books to my chest like a shield and cringing and apologizing for being in the way. I didn't think it was possible to have that much fun being anxious and socially awkward. I was threatened by bullies, unsuccessfully hid my cigarette from teachers, and had a cute girl tell me she'd pay me to write a paper for her. It was so. Much. Fun. I can't even tell you.
Then on Sunday, Ahna and I went to see the Pet Shop Boys. And right now, you're just mildly thinking, "Oh, right, that band who did West End Girls, oh, that's nice," and that's because you haven't been to one of their concerts. They put on an amazing stage show, with multiple costume changes and dancers with insanely great choreography and digitally-projected computer animation and -- it's more performance art than just "a concert". A full-on spectacle. You totally need to go the next time they come through town.
.... And the weekend's not over yet, apparently. Tomorrow night, I'm going to go see "Wicked" again, this time with elocinnuala, which is going to be awesome. |
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| Home is where I want to be |
[Jul. 28th, 2009|01:41 pm] |
Okay, team. Tuesday. And Tunes thereof. You know the drill.
I've included my usual link to this week's MP3 below, but first, before you hear the song on its own, you should check out this really insanely well-done American Psycho-inspired music video. Umm, unless you've never seen American Psycho, in which case, a.) you're probably not going to have any real appreciation for the video, and b.) remind me, why are we friends again -- ?
And now, if you can manage to get the imagery of the video out of your head, just listen to the MP3, and read the lyrics if you're not familiar with the original, and see if you can tell why I've been listening to this song over and over again for days now:It's a cover of the old Talking Heads song, and gives it a fresh coat of slick, cheerful, AutoTuney goodness. This has been making me feel happy, light, calm but energized, accepting and Zen. It's just what I need right now, in other words. I guess I am already there.
( lyrics ) |
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| Reading at Wayward Coffeehouse THIS SATURDAY, July 18th, 8pm! |
[Jul. 14th, 2009|10:50 am] |
.... Sorry for the short notice on this one, but:
Wayward Coffeehouse has been having a regular "Sci-Fi/Fantasy Author Reading Series" for a while now, and they decided my work was close enough to fit in.
We've had this scheduled for a while, and there were supposed to be one or two other authors scheduled to read that night? And for all I know, there still are, but I've never heard any confirmation about who they might be. I'd been planning on promoting this more when I had the other writers' names to announce, but, well, here we are at the last minute. :)
So come out and see me! I'll most likely be reading "Tuesday Calling" and "The Wedding Present" unless anyone else has any special requests, and probably something else besides, time permitting.
Sci-Fi/Fantasy Author Reading - Michael Montoure, others TBA
Wayward Coffeehouse
http://www.waywardcoffee.com/
8570 Greenwood Ave N, Seattle WA 98103
(Event details on Facebook) |
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| Unnamed. |
[Jul. 3rd, 2009|11:43 pm] |
Blood rushing deeper as tears run dry
Finding its way to the secret inside
A tide rising inward, rivers reversed
Filling the chambers and breaking their curse
No doors and no windows, no view to the sky
Just a shuddering silence, a wondering why
Hearts can be broken, rebuilt again wrong
Sharp edges inside where no shards belong
But nothing's for always, not pleasure, not pain
When what's broken is gone, what's whole will remain
The blood that remembers comes crashing like rain
Until the heart beats to its rhythm again
I've seen in your eyes something free and untamed
And it calls out to me, somewhere deep and unnamed
Says, Dancer, won't you remember the Dance?
Each surely placed footstep, and each taken chance?
Says, Lover, no matter how close we've grown
Your heart was a gift I never wanted to own
There's no place for your heart next to mine to belong
It's been right there inside you with its unheard song
Your answers aren't found in my eyes alone
Let song fill your chambers, take your unclaimed Throne
And a voice I'd forgotten from a heart that's grown still
Remembers the Dance and whispers,
"I will" |
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| Just nod if you can hear me |
[Jun. 16th, 2009|01:47 pm] |
Time for Tunes for Tuesday, kids.
First, shock yourself awake with everyone's favorite twenty-first century disco band bringing their own insanely glam touch to an old Pink Floyd standard:Now knock your chair over and kick it out of your cubicle, 'cause you're gonna need room to dance:Finally, take the rest of the afternoon off, and drive around with your windows down, listening to this: |
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| Painted. |
[Jun. 15th, 2009|12:42 pm] |
I have to give massive, massive props here to endorphan, kimmiemonster, retcon, and saffyre_dragon, who gave their weekend to helping me paint my condo, a project I started and abandoned -- oh, the better part of a decade ago, actually, and living inside the unfinished results has been pretty insanely depressing. But now my home is well on its way to being a proud and brilliant gleaming white, and I can't thank my friends enough.
We completely finished the living room, the dining room, and the hallway, including the interior of the hall closet, and I tell ya -- it looks fan-freaking-tastic. We even got a decent start on the kitchen. Both it and the bedroom are, sadly, not very big -- so it's really not going to take a lot to finish the place.
This is just the start. I finally have the time, energy, and cash-on-hand to start making this place livable, in a way I haven't managed since I moved in here -- what, fifteen years ago? Something like that.
And when I'm done ...
....I think I'm finally going to have a housewarming party. |
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| Crypticon. |
[Jun. 3rd, 2009|10:02 am] |
And now for another installment of Short Notice Theater:
Going to be at Crypticon this weekend?
I'm going to be doing a reading on Saturday at 10:30pm in the Olympic Room.
If you like horror, you should really come, and not just for my reading -- the con was a lot of fun last year, and I got to meet a lot of familiar faces from horror movies I know and love. Hope to see your smiling and/or terrified faces as well. Cheers! |
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| Last minute bribe! |
[May. 23rd, 2009|11:22 am] |
Okay, so you may have heard me mention, we're having a party tonight and all, and we'd sure like you to be there.
Last night, one of our members posted that she would personally refund the ticket price for her friends if they did not have an excellent time, and I thought that was awfully jake of her.
But! Since we in the Merchants of Deva have a long-standing tradition of trying to top each other1, I can do that one better!
If you've been looking at these invites thinking, "Gosh, I sure would like to go, but President Obama hasn't fixed the economy yet and I gots no moneys" -- then I will buy your ticket!2
That's right -- if you really feel like you can't afford it, the first three people to respond to this post saying, "Sure, Six, I'd like to take cruel advantage of your generous nature" gets in the door for the low, low price of zero dollars and zero cents.
____
1. No, not like that, you perverts. Sheeeesh.
2. Local taxes and fees may apply. Offer void where prohibited. Ask your doctor if the Merchants of Deva is right for you. |
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| The Merchants of Deva present: AFTERPARTY, Saturday, May 23rd |
[May. 18th, 2009|04:21 pm] |
The MERCHANTS OF DEVA have hosted fifteen years of the best parties science-fiction fandom has to offer, at conventions like NORWESCON, WESTERCON and more. Now they're finally leaving conventions behind for a brand new venue called: the real world! If you've been to their parties before, you know what to expect. If this will be your first — you won't want it to be your last!
Spinning pre-apocalyptic Techno-Industrial/Darkwave/EBM for your dancing pleasure:
→ DJ SPACEMONKEY
→ plus special guest, the West Coast-renowned DJ VELVETEEN
Drink specials:
→ Depleted Uranium
→ Reactor Coolant
→ Napalm Death
→ plus select shots and cocktails from our hosted wet bar
$15 cover includes two drink tickets.
The party starts at 8:00pm at Sodo Pop, at 2424 1st Ave, Seattle, WA.
Post-Apocalyptic costumes encouraged!
Re-posted from ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) merchants_deva
community.livejournal.com/merchants_deva/18749.html
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| Cross purposes. |
[May. 14th, 2009|01:35 pm] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | The Avalanches - Frontier Psychiatrist | ] |
Just a public note, here --
If you are on Dreamwidth and you're cross-posting to your LiveJournal, I'm unfriending you here as part of my transition. I love you all, but I don't need to read what you write twice. :)
I never post anything here friends-only, so you're not going to be missing anything by having me unfriend you. (Good lord, I hate LJ terminology.) We're good. |
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| The Audacity of Hope |
[May. 1st, 2009|11:49 am] |
Dreamwidth launched its Open Beta yesterday. Even if you haven't been paying attention to Dreamwidth before now, you have probably started seeing people on your friendslist start requesting or offering invite codes.
I've seen Dreamwidth described as "a bunch of ex-LJ staffers rebooting LJ from the inside," and as "a project run by people who fell out of love with LJ, and want to create something worth loving again." As one staffer puts it, "what we're trying to do is to be what LiveJournal could have become."
I've had my Dreamwidth account for a while, thanks to an invite code from chemicallace. I've been checking it out, kicking the tires, and while it's early days still, things are starting to look pretty solid.
Do you remember my April Fool's Day post last year, where I said I was leaving LJ? Well -- like they say, many a true word is spoken in jest. A lot of the objections to LJ I raised there have simmered in my brain ever since.
At the risk of having you think I'm crying wolf again -- this time, I really am leaving LiveJournal. Not immediately, but probably soon. And I think you should, too.
Let's talk about this.
______
So what's wrong with LiveJournal?
Honestly, I've always loved this place. Look what I had to say about it after I'd been here for a year.
But the corporations who have taken it over since then -- them, I don't love so much. Six Apart, and their successors SUP, have ads put on the site (including those damned annoying Snap.com popups), and mass-deleted everything from user icons to interests to entire journals and communities due to "objectionable" content, with ham-fisted insincere apologies when people complained.
And they've proven, over and over again, that they really, simply, don't care about us. We're not people -- we're "eyeballs," page-impressions they can turn around and sell to advertisers. That's their real customer base. The advertisers, not us.
Every time you post here, you're providing them content to make money from. And you're doing it for free.
Are you really okay with that?
______
So what makes these Dreamwidth people any better?
For one thing, their business model isn't based on ads. Now, I'm just cynical enough that my first reaction to that is "well, sure, that's what they say now" -- but everything I read from them convinces me that's not gonna change. Seriously, read their Business FAQs -- they address every concern I had and more. Hell, read their diversity statement. The fact that they even have one speaks volumes about what kind of community they're trying to build.
These people look like know what they are doing. Most of them worked or volunteered for LJ before, and they know what they're getting into, both from a technical perspective and a business standpoint.
______
But isn't it just another LiveJournal clone, anyway?
Like DeadJournal or InsaneJournal, you mean? No, it's not. It starts from the same codebase, and branches off with it in a different direction. (It's a "code fork," if you speak geekish.) They're making significant changes -- here's a list of them -- and I think they're good ones, from sweeping changes to small tweaks.
The best decision they've made so far, in my opinion, is that they're getting rid of the whole "friends" concept. (Honestly, can you think of any other user-interface naming convention anywhere that's more pointlessly emotionally loaded? How many actual friendships have been harmed by being "unfriended" on LJ?) This also means that you don't have to hand someone the secret keys to your diary just because you want to read their posts. Instead, you can "grant access to" or "subscribe to" someone -- it's two separate things. (Like it should be. I've said this for years.)
______
You're really leaving?
I'm really leaving. At some point soon, when "enough" people have migrated over -- I'm going to stop posting here, and make all my old posts private. (Except for my fan fiction -- those will remain publically available.)
Once I do stop, I'll probably still log in to make comments in other people's journals and participate in communities, for a while, at least. But I'm not going to be crossposting. I know a lot of people are planning on doing that, but I'm not one of them. I really, seriously think it's time for us rats to get off this ship. And I think the longer everyone tries to keep a foot in both worlds, the harder it's going to be to make that happen. We need to build some momentum here, we need to give people a reason to switch.
If you are already on Dreamwidth -- let me know. If you're not -- it's easy and painless to copy your entire journal, comments and icons and filters and all, over to Dreamwidth. If you need an invite code -- let me know, I've got some left.
(EDIT: Okay, all my invite codes are claimed. I will post if I get more.)
If you're planning on staying here -- please tell me you'll think about why you're doing it.
I don't think we owe any loyalty to LiveJournal itself, -- certainly, its owners don't feel any loyalty toward us. But I do still have a tremendous amount of loyalty to the ideas and ideals of LiveJournal, the heart of it -- and I think this is where that heart can be found again.
I'll see you there. |
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| Perl. |
[Apr. 30th, 2009|10:00 am] |
So the company I've been working for, CourtTrax, is looking to hire a Perl developer. I love working here, so if you hack Perl and need a job, I highly recommend you go read the job description and see if you think it's a good fit for you.
(Umm, we're also looking for a VP of Sales, but I think my friendsphere is likelier to have a Perl dev in it.) |
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| Hyde. |
[Apr. 20th, 2009|02:12 pm] |
I forgot to mention what we ended up doing for our anniversary --
We went to see ACT Theatre's production of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Here's how they describe it:
"Jeffrey Hatcher has seen the Victorians, and they are us. In his inventive retelling of the classic thriller, four different actors play Henry Jekyll's depraved alter ego. With its observations on the blurry line between good and evil, audiences will savor this show's psychological musings as much as its classic melodrama. And if you think this timeless story just might say something about how we live today, well...the doctor is in."
It was really, seriously, outstandingly good. It runs until May 10th. If you have the time and you can spare the money, do go and see it. |
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| Anniversary. |
[Apr. 18th, 2009|04:55 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | ahna | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Voltaire - Anniversary | ] |
♫ And they said this feeling fades / It gets stronger every day ♫
Almost on my way out the door for the evening I've spent the afternoon planning -- the date snuck up on us this year, and I was completely unprepared, but I think all will work out well. Took a few minutes to look over everything I've written here about Ahna and I'm surprised to see how little of it was written to mark these days, as each year passes. I suppose each year finds me too busy out having fun to take a minute to say something.
Today, five years. I'm constantly amazed this beautiful, bright-burning, quick-clever girl wants to spend five minutes talking to me, and here we've gone riding around on this strange little planet hand-in-hand five times around the sun, and neither one of us tired of this game yet.
I love you much, strange little velociraptor girl. I'm a better person than I was before I met you, and so much of that is because I want to live up to being cool enough to hang out with you. |
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| the computer has the evidence |
[Apr. 14th, 2009|11:28 am] |
So usually, when I do a Tunes for Tuesday post, I put up something I've been listening to for a little while -- a few days, at least. I can't remember when I've ever heard something new on a Tuesday and turned right around and posted a link to it. But today's that day!
Some of you may have already heard a truncated version of this already; I understand it's being used in television ads for the 2010 Lincoln MKZ. It's a cover of a song you already know, and probably like, if I know my friends list correctly, so here it is:
Shiny Toy Guns - Major Tom
Let me know if you do like it. Cheers. |
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| Invasion of the POD People |
[Apr. 2nd, 2009|01:34 pm] |
You know, considering how hard warren_ellis has been banging the print-on-demand drum lately, isn't it interesting that he didn't just put Crooked Little Vein up on Lulu? It came out from a traditional publisher instead, William Morrow. Gosh, why is that, do you think? Do you suppose he wanted, I don't know .... money? Exposure? To have his book carried in bookstores? To have magazines and other media actually review it? To give it some kind of weight and legitimacy, maybe?
I keep thinking to myself, "Maybe I should try all this POD stuff," since the cool kids are doing it, and it's supposed to be impossible to get published these days and no one's reading books anymore any way and and and --
And then I walk into a great big fuckoff bookstore like Barnes & Noble or Borders, and I look around and think, "Hey, wait a minute! Somebody's getting published."
What's my conclusion here? I don't have one. |
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