Lacey felt like screaming. "Listen. I know this is Las Vegas, and you've probably seen like 10,000 strung-out hookers, but I'm not one of them. This guy was real. This thing happened. Now you gotta do something about it!"

—excerpt from blue diamond eyes by Craig Snyder



The Rock Art of Mick Rock
View a new template for the blog. I'm working on it. Should I use it? I'm in no hurry...

"She emerged draped in leather, her black eye-shadow pools eating light and making her look like a supersexed raccoon or something much stranger."

—excerpt from Pink Leatherette by Craig Snyder


Begging Woman via consumptive.
MY DAY SO FAR:

Woke at 9:30, big rainstorm last night but clearing up, Cheerios and three cups of coffee, made it too weak, damn. Two cigarettes while staring at the river flow by and watching hummingbirds come to the feeders almost too fast to see, dressed and loaded, took the bike and started to ride.

Ten miles to town, the only place I can get online, the university library, beautiful ride, cool and green, logged on at 11:30 and checked mail, two submissions for rumble and not much else. Opened the new templates I've been working on and they destructed in Netscape, no big surprise, I'll work it out.

Perry and Justynn IM'd me and we shot the shit for about 10 minutes.

Finally, made the blogger rounds, forgot to mention I heard about the surprise handover of power in Iraq at 1:30 this morning as it was happening, and thought it was well done, catch the insurgents off-guard and maybe save some lives. The Nets are humming with the story...

That's about it. I need another cigarette now.

jpeg baby and g-mail hotties via mathibus. Also, the American Highway Project and the skinny on plain layne, will this story never die? The fabulous killer Japanese seizure robots!

"What do we seek in Lorbanery?"
"That which we seek," said Sparrowhawk.
"In Enlad," said Arren after a while, "we have a story about the boy whose schoolmaster was a stone."
"Aye?...What did he learn?"
"Not to ask questions."

—excerpt from The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin


Picasso's Garcon a la pipe

Van Gogh's Dr. Gachet
Listen to and download a preview of the new Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy series.

Between two tall grass blades in the clearing a spider had spun a web, a circle delicately suspended. The silver threads caught the sunlight. In the center the spinner waited, a grey-black thing no larger than the pupil of an eye.
"She too is a patterner," Ged said, studying the web.
"What is evil?" asked the younger man.
The round web, with its black center, seemed to watch them both.
"A web we men weave," Ged answered.

—excerpt from The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin

Is Plain Layne this guy? People who are close to the whole "disappearance of the world's most popular blogger" situation say it is. But do they know for sure? Maybe, but I've seen no proof of it. Here's my take:

• Who cares.


• Some people care too much.


• Whoever this person is she/he likes to write in public a lot and will quickly find a new venue for doing it.

Thanks to Ryan for the links and for getting me into Orkut.

"But Ged stooped and plucked a blade of wild grass that poked up dry and frail out of the snow where the otak had lain dead. This blade he held up, and as he spoke aloud to it in the True Speech it lengthened, and thickened, and when he was done he held a great staff, a wizard's staff, in his hand."

—excerpt from A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

Today's gross overgeneralization: Girls are Sloppy, have you noticed? They might spend two hours making themselves up and looking like a million bucks, but you go into their room and it looks like yours when you were twelve. This just makes them more lovable, if you love them already.


Have you noticed the cool music in the commercial for Michael Moore's Fahrenheit/911? That's Ten Years After fellow babies. A great rock band that people don't listen to often enough and shame on them, like they have something better to do? Listen: this is urgent. Get the 2002 re-issue of Cricklewood Green today. Two bonus tracks and it'll help you remember what Rock n Roll is all about.

Less interesting than that: Cheney says "fuck" / all the girls of Star Trek / via grow a brain / the Green Slime theme song / Speed Racer doesn't know that his brother is actually the mysterious Racer X / my favorite Spiderman comic strip / some celebrity blogs.

"You thought, as a boy, that a mage is one who can do anything. So I thought, once. So did we all. And the truth is that as a man's real power grows and his knowledge widens, ever the way he can follow grows narrower: until at last he chooses nothing, but does only and wholly what he must do..."

—excerpt from A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

My grandmother died a few days ago.

This was a woman with hardly a vice, a woman always pleasant and warm, who baked cookies and cakes and begged you to eat them. I loved her so much.

When I was a boy, she lived in a house next to a park where I played, down the street from the school where I learned, across the block from a penny candy store where I bought pixie sticks for a penny apiece, and wax lips and Zotz and a million kinds of candy they don't make anymore.

Once I ran away from a Patrol Guard boy, and in those days the Patrol Guards took their job seriously; they would capture you and take you for punishment if you broke the rules, so you hated them and their shiny yellow belts. I ran from this guard all the way to my grandmother's house—I was fast like lightning then. The Patrol Guard boy was right behind me, but my grandmother opened the door and made him go away with his tail between his skinny little white legs.

My grandmother was my hero.

At christmas-time we would go over to her house and my grandfather would drink his Strohs and smoke his pipe and my grandmother would do everything else: prepare and serve the food, clean up our messes, listen to our stories and laugh, ask us if we wanted another Coke. Those were the best times.

They are gone now. She is gone now, a great lady, the best there was.

"...the sallow oval between Ged's arms grew bright. It widened and spread, a rent in the darkness of the earth and night, a ripping open of the fabric of the world. Through it blazed a terrible brightness. And through that bright misshapen breach clambered something like a clot of black shadow, quick and hideous, and it leaped straight out at Ged's face."

—excerpt from A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

Only I am free to act. Everyone else is a robot slaved to the instructions printed on their circuits. I can tell you it is very lonely. But the sunsets are beautiful.

The blog of President Bill Clinton via maud newton. The three sequels to The Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy will be turned into radio dramas featuring many voices from the original 12-part saga! maud again.

The gallery of superdudes.

You control the drunk guy. Only you can keep him vertical. Only you can get him to the next bar.

Stupendously gigantic web standards link list from simple bits.

Want mail? Rediffmail offers 1 gig plus in storage space and you don't have to wait for an invite.

Finally, The White Turds via me.

"Little by little, drawn on by the boy's sureness of understanding, the young Master began to do more than merely tell him of these mysteries. He taught him first one and then another of the Great Spells of Change, and he gave him the Book of Shaping to study. This he did without knowledge of the Archmage, and unwisely, yet he meant no harm."

—excerpt from A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

Good morning, Blogosphere.

A new search engine, Vivismo, gives clustered results and is surprisingly clean and fast. I heard about it at caterina.net.


A nearly complete archive of Robert Heinlein paperback covers. Certainly this master of science fiction would be celebrating today as the first private spaceship to break out of earth's atmosphere returns successfully to earth...

Ray Bradbury is pissed that Michael Moore didn't ask his permission when naming his new documentary Fahrenheit 9/11, a spin of the title of Bradbury's excellent novel Fahrenheit 451. Link via reblog.

More science fiction: An excerpt from Larry Niven's new Ringworld book, Ringworld's Children. Via maud newton.

Some interesting scripts including a custom right-click box script that you can configure with CSS. I also like the spin-menu, which I've used on my own site.

Finally, an unbelievably useful online font browser which lets you see how every font on your computer looks without actually having to open them.

"In the world under the sun, and in the other world that has no sun, there is much that has nothing to do with men and men's speech, and there are powers beyond our power. But magic, true magic, is worked only by those beings who speak the Hardic tongue of Earthsea, or the Old Speech from which it grew."

—excerpt from A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

Holy Guacamole, Batman! The plain layne controversy rolls on with comments and speculation galore from many bloggers. Is she real? Should we care? I've got no opinion except to say I wish the blog was back. Here's the metafilter thread.

3000 blogs die a horrible, horrible death. Link via waxy

I've posted a collection of six new stories called white paper on my site. Do you feel compelled to go there? Surrender to that feeling.

By the way, in case you were wondering it is possible to hit a squirrel on a bicycle even if you don't mean to. We have no deal with the squirrels.

With voice and hand he made the Opening spell which his aunt had taught him long ago...When that failed Ged stood a long while there on the pavement. At last he looked at the old man who waited inside.
"I cannot enter," he said unwillingly, "unless you help me."
The doorkeeper answered, "Say your name."
Then again Ged stood a while; for a man never speaks his own name aloud, until more than his life's safety is at stake.
"I am Ged," he said aloud. Stepping forward then he entered the open doorway. Yet it seemed to him that though the light was behind him, a shadow followed him in at his heels.

—excerpt from A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin


Fantastic gallery of comic book cover reproductions. Many favorites including some Neal Adams Batman covers from the 1970's.

Johnny Ramone update: A couple of e-mails from Marky Ramone as a follow up to what he said in the Rolling Stone article:

"I only wish the best for John and I hope he has a speedy recovery. A week before that I lost a friend named Bob Quine who I played with in the Voidoids. I wasn't looking for any publicity, I was disgusted hearing about what people were saying how Johnny was dying, some said aids, some said alzheimers. I had had enough so that's why I went public to preserve his dignity."

and:

"I have nothing against people who have aids or alzheimers and I did a lot of charities for them. I just wanted the rumors to stop of what Johnny's illness is that's all."

"Ged stood dumb, his heart bewildered. He had come to love this man Ogion who had healed him with a touch, and who had no anger; he loved him, and had not known it until now. He looked at the oaken staff leaning in the chimney-corner, remembering the radiance of it that had burned out evil from the dark..."

—excerpt from A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

Tweaking the template a bit. Let me know what you think. There may be more changes.

As some of you might know, one of my favorite blogs has been plain layne because of the excellent writing and soap opera quality of the posts. Well it seems that layne has disappeared and her blog taken over by incredibly bored groupies...

"Have you never thought how danger must surround power as shadow does light? This sorcery is not a game we play for pleasure or for praise. Think of this: that every word, every act of our Art is said and done either for good, or for evil. Before you speak or do you must know the price that is to pay!"

—excerpt from A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin


Johnny Ramone has cancer. One by one the greatest punk band in the history of rock n roll are being taken. On occasion the whole concept of time and entropy really pisses me off.

Bloomsday 100th celebration and I had no clue, not being able to make it through anything James Joyce has written. However, I am not alone in this. Believe me, If I could I would, and don't you elitists sneer at me, I have the same problem with Faulkner...Strangely enough, a friend sent me a Bloomsday card. You can make your own here, people.

Logged into Yahoo this morning and surprise, surprise, they have a nice redesign and increased their e-mail account storage to a healthy 100 megs. Guess we have Google to thank for that, and speaking of...I still have those three gmail accounts up for grabs.

The Lakers were humiliated in last night's final game of the NBA championship. They used to be my team when Magic was around, but nothing gave me greater satisfaction than to see them beaten into submission by Detroit.

"He crossed to the far bank, shuddering with cold but walking slow and erect as he should through that icy, living water. As he came to the bank Ogion, waiting, reached out his hand and clasping the boy's arm whispered to him his true name: Ged.
Thus was he given his name by one very wise in the uses of power."

—excerpt from A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

Sign the condolence book at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Submissions for the new e-zine rumble are still open, submit your work today! The Marilyn Monroe picture archive via neurastenia. I have three new gmail invites. Same rules as last time, first come first get.

"So it happened that on the fifth day after the slaughter at Armouth a stranger came into Ten Alders village, a man neither young nor old, who came cloaked and bareheaded, lightly carrying a great staff of oak that was as tall as himself."

—excerpt from A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

Image hosting back online, yea!

The visual impact of the Reagan funeral was tremendous. Most moving was Nancy Reagan at the end of the day, clutching her husband's coffin and not wanting to leave him.


An archive of black and white army photos featuring some of the world's earliest computers.

An incredible article about End of the Century, the Ramones documentary currently being shown at some major film festivals. Thanks to Brian for the heads up! You are one of the good ones, man.

"Seeing him in the high pastures often with a bird of prey about him, the other children called him Sparrowhawk, and so he came by the name that he kept in later life as his use-name, when his true-name was not known."

—excerpt from A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

Image hosting still down. Typing this while lurking in a flickr chat channel. Watched a mess of stuff on Reagan last night, remembering the way it was before. A lot of people blame Reagan for new wave music, but I thank him.

Top notch flash animation of the Beatles Come Together via the crafty incoming signals. Want more Beatles? Go here.

Download the interesting trailer from Michael Moore's new film Fahrenheit 9/11, once again via incoming signals.

"Speak!" she said to test the spell.
The boy could not speak, but he laughed.
Then his aunt was a little afraid of his strength, for this was as strong a spell as she knew how to weave: she had tried not only to gain control of his speech and silence, but to bind him at the same time to her service in the craft of sorcery.

—excerpt from A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

My image host has gone cracker-dog on me, completely flop-bot. If it doesn't clear up soon I'll have to move my images to a different host and I don't want to do that because it's boring. I'll give it a couple of days. There does seem to be quite a few new free image hosts out there since I last took a look.

TNA has been off-line for two weeks, but has made it back onto the Net as of today. Q: If a database crashes does it make a sound? A: Sometimes it makes a little buzzing sound but not always.

ZERO TOLERANCE

What does zero tolerance mean to you? For a lot of you it means weed, as in harsh penalties for being in possession of. But what I'm referring to is the change that took place in this country after Ronald Reagan was first elected. Basically what I'm talking about is the increasing emphasis on business and profits and the external appearance of things, and a decreasing emphasis and concern for civil rights, the working poor, the social safety net; all things that don't have to do with making a lot of money.

Do you remember the change? Do you remember, oh people, the way it was before?

"He grew wild, a thriving weed, a tall, quick boy, loud and proud and full of temper. With the few other children of the village he herded goats on the steep meadows above the river-springs; and when he was strong enough to push and pull the long bellows-sleeves, his father made him work as a smith's boy, at a high cost in blows and whippings."

—excerpt from A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin


1911 - 2004

Hey everybody in the big bad blogosphere! Sorry, no quotes today as I'm between books at the moment. Just finishing up The Confusion and about to re-read the Earthsea trilogy of books, from which will come a lot of nice quotes you betcha.

I saw a line of kids today outside the theatre while I was across the street getting a really bad haircut. The Harry Potter film opens, and I sneer, but I secretly want to see it. Hermione grew like a foot or something, but she's still cute...

Well that's about it except here is a Franz Kafka webpage loaded with a lot of photos and other cool obscure junk about the author of The Metamorphosis.

"...she knew two things absolutely. One was that the duc d'Arcachon was dead. Her mission in life had, therefore, been accomplished. The other was that Jack Shaftoe was alive, had redeemed himself, and loved her. Best of all, he loved her from a tremendous distance, which made being loved by him ever so much less inconvenient."

—excerpt from The Confusion by Neal Stephenson

I've always been a big fan of Blondie; the ethereal quality of her voice, her other-worldly beauty, the catchy pop-punk sounds—what's not to like?

When Debbie Harry started singing those tired bluesy jazzy numbers, I really couldn't hack it. But recently, a miracle. The Curse of Blondie! I didn't think I would like any new music from this venerable new wave band—figured they had lost it. Then I heard the single Good Boys and realized they could still punch out the kind of music I like. It's worth checking out, sweet, sweet net children. I mean it. Go do it.



Is President Bush a big fat liar?

This is interesting:

"A privately-developed rocket plane will launch into history on June 21 on a mission to become the world's first commercial manned space vehicle.

The pilot of the craft, still to be announced, will become the first person to earn astronaut wings in a non-government sponsored vehicle, and the first private civilian to fly a spaceship out of the atmosphere."

Zeldman.Com is nine years old. Congratulations and thanks for all the help, Jeffrey Zeldman.

"Beyond the wall rose a white city...But this city appeared to've been laboriously spackled onto the side of a precipitous mountain whose slopes rose directly from the high-tide mark. It looked a bit like a wedge of Paris tilted upwards by some tidy God who wanted to make all the shit finally run out of it."

—excerpt from The Confusion by Neal Stephenson


Jack Kerouac, author of On the Road. From the excellent website of photographer Elliott Erwitt. (via neurastenia)

The twelve commandments of flaming.