Those Who Enjoy a Mutual Lending of Ears mr_earbrass

• Sun, 04:16: RT @seldo: Scooby-Doo is a positive show with three key messages for children: 1. Monsters aren't real 2. The problem is always greedy capi…
• Sun, 04:16: RT @johnlegend: I get why everyone gets mad when rich person X gets a short sentence and poor person of color Y gets a long one. The answer…
• Sun, 04:37: RT @erinscafe: you can handle it https://t.co/xKOQzLpc4r

Cloudy today, for the most part, so a little break from the sun. Currently, it's only 78˚F, with the heat index at 80˚F.

Eddie Money is dead. I probably haven't listened to an Eddie Money song since the 1980s, but he was part of the cultural soundscape of my youth (let's say 1977-1986), which is melting away as quickly as the icecaps.

What do you say about a day that you have to spend fifteen minutes trying to think of anything at all worthwhile to say about? I'm having far too many of those.

Have a look at Spooky's Etsy shop. The goblins in her workshop are busy making Halloween thingamabobs.

Later,
CRK




4:23 p.m. (yesterday)

• Fri, 23:35: RT @Lexialex: I’m not sure most Americans understand that this USPexit is bad news https://t.co/JfQ16JH3z2
• Sat, 00:22: RT @mariond_d: I will be at @Copperfields, Petaluma, 140 Kentucky Ave, on Saturday 9/21/19 (1:30-3:30) to say "Hi,"sign & talk about ALUMIN…
• Sat, 00:24: RT @renato_mariotti: Wow. The Justice Department argues the House of Representatives should not have access to the results of a criminal in…
• Sat, 00:48: RT @AmandaMarcotte: I swear, pundits are literally the only people who think that paying a dollar in taxes is somehow more expensive than p…
• Sat, 03:00: The Farmer Lay Down in His Field: Ritual, Sacrifice, and Folk Horror in Carcassonne
• Sat, 04:34: RT @KenJennings: People always say "Why does Hogwarts allow a house that just produces nothing but evil wizards?" but I dunno, we still hav…
• Sat, 05:10: RT @JMMcDermott: Argument against Obamacare: It worked until GOP actively sabotaged it, even though it was their own plan from the Cato Ins…
• Sat, 05:10: RT @StinaLeicht: Dear Gun Nuts, threatening violence if the government moves to take away your guns really doesn't help your case for being…

The Glittering World: A Book Club Recommendation! by Robert Levy
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The story of a young man returning to the place of his birth only to discover he was abducted as a child, although he has no memory of it, takes a supernatural turn in Robert Levy’s dark, sexy debut novel. A melancholy, thorny take on changelings and the Fae, Levy gives us four complex, indelible characters in Blue, Elisa, Jason, and Gabe, each of whom has their own secrets, their own desires, and their own way of coping with the strange and frightening circumstances that have befallen them. Levy wisely presents the Fae without too many overt details, implying that they are something language is inadequate at describing, which keeps the supernatural element satisfyingly mysterious and otherworldly throughout. Neither good nor evil, both beautiful and horrible, representing both complete freedom and the complete submission of will, Levy’s Fae are an incredible and compelling achievement, as is the novel itself. Highly recommended.

View all my reviews

Originally published at Nicholas Kaufmann. You can comment here or there.

Gonna be a scorcher today. Currently, it's 85˚F, with a heat index of 90˚F. Yesterday, we maxed out with a heat index of 101˚F.

Yesterday and Wednesday were both McWane days, and McWane days are always good, but I spent all of Wednesday and the very first part of yesterday trying to cut down the last Alfred the Tylosaur plaster field jacket for storage. Which, mountains of plaster dust aside, wouldn't have been a big deal, except for a hard-as-fuck cedar branch set into one side of the jacket (used to brace it and avoid flexing), cedar that had cured for 36 years (!). It defeated the Dremel. It defeated a couple of other power tools. Finally, yesterday morning Drew cut through it with a hacksaw, because the lowest tech solutions are usually the best. And he still has upper body strength. So, finally, after four months of prep work, I'm done with the back half of the left mandible of Alfred the Tylosaur, discovered in 1981 and excavated in 1983. Which means I get to move along to another tylosaur skull, this one collected about 1994 from very near the same spot where Alfred was found. I've christened this one Toby the Tylosaur. Much of yesterday was spent on a single posterior cervical vertebra, just getting a feel for the matrix and the bone. Alfred has a skull that was about 5' long. Toby is a smaller, younger mosasaur, and I'm suspecting the skull will "only" be about 3.5' long.

Today, I gotta be a writer again, which means helping Spooky with eBay books and dealing with business related to two forthcoming short story collections, Borderlands Press' A Little Yellow Book of Fever Dreams (a selection of my "fairy tales") and Subterranean Press' re-release of Alabaster. And speaking of Subterranean Press, their edition of Houses Under the Sea: Mythos Tales is back from the printers and shipping any day (or already), and it's also 90% sold out. So, act fast. I have no plans for a third edition.

Oh, and here's a link to what is likely the very best review of The Very Best of Caitlín R. Kiernan that I've seen. It made me happy, day before yesterday when I first saw it.

John Wick 3: Parabellum is an utter fucking joy, probably more of a joy than it has a right to be. And tonight, the fourth and final season of The Ranch begins.

Spooky's still putting up cool Halloween stuff in her Etsy shop. Have a look.

The RP in Second Life is still going well. And I never thought I'd say that again.

I leave you with a rather random museum photograph. Spooky says it can be the cover photo for my next album.

Later Tylotaters,
CRK




2:40 p.m. (yesterday)

• Thu, 15:31: RT @absurdistwords: Ok. If you want to know what fascist propaganda is, let this be your exemplar. This is a celebration of state violenc…
• Thu, 15:32: RT @amaditalks: 4 Americans die from lawn dart accidents. Lawn darts are banned. 5 Americans die from vaping. Vape products are banned.…
• Fri, 01:26: This is a banner year for amazing horror collections, and one that should definitely be on your list is Scott R Jon… https://t.co/DbxVK7PzE1
• Fri, 01:33: RT @ac_wise: I finished up A Spectral Hue by @ethereallad on the train home, and let me tell you, it is gorgeous. It's awash with color and…
• Fri, 01:36: RT @MonteCookGames: New, free release! CONSENT IN GAMING gives you strategies to make sure everyone at the table has a great experience, e…
• Fri, 01:53: RT @CoreyFarrenkopf: October's coming up fast! Join @LairdBarron and @MrGaunt at Sturgis Library in #Barnstable, MA Oct. 8th for a talk on…
• Fri, 01:59: RT @djrothkopf: Make no mistake, DoJ has it out for Andrew McCabe because he did his job, honored his oath and sought to find out the truth…
• Fri, 03:52: RT @CamilleLasin: @chloesrose @LuvLibertyPeace @brooklynmarie This is what their shirts said https://t.co/TNfyaLoLAr

• Wed, 20:08: I misread this sign as “horny cornbread” every time I see it. 🌽 https://t.co/LvRRwplbXu
• Thu, 02:55: RT @RBReich: 6 e-cigarette deaths ever: Vape control now! 36,000 gun deaths annually: Thoughts and prayers. https://t.co/L6xQuILyPf
• Thu, 02:56: RT @adamsbeck: Weird how 6 people die from vaping and the federal government institutes a ban within weeks, but 20 kindergarteners, 22 peop…

Daniel Johnston (1961-2019) died today. So, there's the day's measure of fresh sadness.

Another mostly hot and sunny day. We did get some clouds, and some parts of the city got rain. Downtown got rain, but not much. But the heat index only reached 97˚F today. Currently, it's 82˚F, with the heat index at 85˚F.

A long, long, long day today, and I'm really too tired to be making this entry. I was awake a six a.m. and up at seven. There was breakfast from Jack's, a trip to the bank, trips to the pharmacy and Target. I had to be at McWane at one p.m., and...you know, I'll come back to MacWane on Friday, because I have another day there tomorrow, and I'm almost too tired and sore to make sense. Oh, and Friday I have ton go back to being a writer again.

Yesterday, we saw It Chapter Two, and...I wish I could say I wasn't disappointed, because I loved the first film so much, but the farther I get from having seen the second film, the less I like it. And mostly, it comes down to this: it was unnecessary. The first film was damn near perfect, and it had a good ending, and that should have been that. Sure, all of King's bloated novel wasn't there, but all the good parts were. I should say again that It (1986) was the novel when I finally began losing interest in King (The Tommyknockers came along and finished what It began). So I was amazed when I loved the first film, and I had hoped to love the second, but I just don't think the director could have pulled it off. The cards were stacked against him. And yet, the cast was uniformly good, and Bill Skarsgård was still excellent, and the creature effects were mostly still amazing, and they tossed out most of King's absurd cosmogony. But the just went on and on and on and on and on, meandering and circling back and losing track of itself until it descended into a trite, sentimental parody of the first film. So, that's what I think. You may not agree. Make up your own minds, as always. But in summation: It's not a bad film. I wouldn't walk out or want my money back. It was just unnecessary.

We're watching Bosch, because we needed a show and there are five seasons and I love Titus Welliver. And no, Bosch isn't terribly good TV, but it is very watchable. And Titus Welliver.

Please, check out the eBay auctions and Spooky's Dreaming Squid Dollworks and Sundries shop. Thank you.

And as for the day's measure of lingering sadness, it seems almost impossible that 18 years have passed since 9/11/01, the most terrifying day I have ever lived through, a day that changed America forever. I have not forgotten any of it. I never will.

But hey. Tomatoes from Mexico. Because Alabama tomatoes just ain't good enough. Or maybe they all go to Mexico. Anyway, I got John Wick 3 – Parabellum waiting for me, so...

Later,
CRK




4:37 p.m. (Hadrodus hewletti, RMM 1950; see Bell, G.L. 1986)

• Tue, 17:39: RT @nadiabulkin: SHE SAID DESTROY, coming soon in Spanish! https://t.co/rWJG0az5jZ
• Tue, 18:44: RT @jonrog1: When you don't know you're a moral monster ... The hilarious thing is that a Warren Administration would mean these banks and…
• Tue, 18:44: RT @PauljGarth: Make them afraid. https://t.co/EyWB94KLi7
• Tue, 18:45: RT @ewarren: The American people are better off with John Bolton out of the White House. The world will be better off when the man who hire…
• Tue, 19:23: RT @briantylercohen: This is Trump condemning nonexistent illegal voting for Democrats in California... at a rally for a special election i…
• Wed, 02:09: RT @KevinHearne: If you know nothing else about Elizabeth Warren, the fact that the rich are already shitting themselves over the prospect…

• Mon, 14:59: RT @TravisAllen02: I’m glad that Obama killed bin Laden before Trump had a chance to become friends with him.
• Mon, 15:09: RT @itsJeffTiedrich: the CIA had to extract their own top spy from Russia because they feared our Putin-worshiping blabbermouth president w…
• Mon, 15:44: RT @rudepundit: If we can’t make #presidentpussyassbitch stick, then what the fuck is Twitter for?
• Mon, 15:45: RT @ethereallad: A favor — please post reviews/or pictures of A SPECTRAL HUE on social media!
• Mon, 15:48: RT @Wolfiesmom: I will never understand how republicans get the ‘fiscally conservative’ label when they give billions of dollars in tax bre…
• Mon, 15:50: RT @JaredHuffman: When our fake POTUS tries to bully someone who is a lot tougher, smarter and funnier than him.... https://t.co/zaUSpI52KY
• Mon, 15:53: RT @GWillowWilson: These are climate refugees and our government--that driver of climate change denialism--just gave them the middle finger…
• Mon, 15:54: RT @MykeCole: We saw it with the Navy lying about the USS McCain. We saw it was the Coast Guard when an admiral lied to cover for Trump’s d…
• Mon, 15:57: RT @RVAwonk: Holy crap. In a previously undisclosed secret mission in 2017, the US extracted one of its highest-level covert sources inside…
• Mon, 17:20: RT @dudleypj: @Wolfiesmom @lossrockhart They created the “fiscally conservative” myth so Reagan could bust unions. They created the “family…

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• Sun, 15:47: RT @rudepundit: You know Trump wanted some fake peace deal with the Taliban on 9/11 so the date would be about him.
• Sun, 16:57: RT @itsJeffTiedrich: I have to admit that I did not have "secretly invite the Taliban to Camp David three days before 9/11" on my Donald Tr…
• Sun, 16:58: RT @RobGeorge: I confess I did NOT have invite-Taliban-to-Camp-David-pre-9/11 to distract from using-military-flights-to-prop-up-failing-Sc…
• Sun, 18:12: Just a few hours left to pledge for this year's H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival and Cthulhucon. Will I see you in Por… https://t.co/Ht0XX0XQjP

Another wide carnivorous sky. Currently, it's 87˚F, with the heat index at 89˚F. The heat index reached 103˚F yesterday. Tuscaloosa had a heat index of 108˚F.

Yesterday was truly probably the worst day since the move from Providence.

I can only fight the good fight to make today any different.

Last night, we finished Season Four of Better Call Saul, so now we're all caught up. That last episode of Season Four, fucking brilliant and beautiful and brittle with sadness. Also, we watched the first episode of Amazon's Carnival Row, and yeah, it's pretty (mostly), and the world building is cool (mostly), but god, what an awful mess. Too many characters, too much plot. And those silly floppy, rubber fairie wings; please, no. I'm not sure whether we'll even bother with more, though I've heard Alice Krige is good.

-----

Look, proof that I can, on rare occasions be funny. Written this day ten years ago:

"...Deep Juan's, a Lovecraftian pizza joint, with mythos-themed pies. For example, here are a few that made the cut (ha, ha...):

1. At the Mozzarella of Madness (featuring the Sauce Out of Thyme)
2. Cthulhu's Revenge (one of the few I've worked out the ingredients for, including fried calamari and clam strips, a jalapeño pesto sauce, and muenster cheese).
3. The Baconomicon
4. Goat Cheese With a Thousand Young
5. Herbert West-Regurgitater Special
6. The Unnameable
7. The Polyperoni (obviously, lots and lots of pepperoni and pearl onions)
8. The Sausagoggoth
9. Pickman's Pineapple
10. Anchovies Over Innsmouth
11. Extra Fungi from Yuggoth

Sides include Elder Wings and Fish Sticks. And, of course, Deep Juan's "Thing on the Doorstep" delivery insures that each pizza will be delivered precisely a Shadow Out of Time, or you get to keep your soul. Still designing the boxes, which, naturally, will be cardboard tesseracts, to hold each non-Euclidean slice.

There was supposed to be a T-shirt, but it never happened."

Copyright © 2009 by Caitlín R. Kiernan

----

You know this part: "But the disease of life and all its demands roll on, so there are the eBay auctions and Spooky's Etsy shop."

Later Cthulhutaters,
CRK




3:43 p.m. (yesterday)

• Sat, 17:23: RT @BreeNewsome: I still argue that the entire point of Trump presidency/era is to reinforce white supremacy & racial caste in the aftermat…

Hot and sunny and the sky the wrong and hungry blue. Currently, it's 92˚F, with the heat index at 100˚F.

I was actually pretty sure today couldn't be worse than yesterday, and yet here it is much worse.

I would just go to sleep, if that were an option.

Do you really have to ask?

But the disease of life and all its demands roll on, so there are the eBay auctions and Spooky's Etsy shop.

Later,
CRK




11:17 a.m. (yesterday)

• Fri, 21:12: RT @TonyMcMillen: Mega fun interview where I give mention to @WordHorde @pmmpublishing and @JRJ_Is_Probable as all good entities and I gab…

Sunny and the sky is as wide and carnivorous as it gets. Currently, it's 83˚F, with the heat index at 83˚F.

No writing again or still or whatever. Bad day after bad day after bad day.

Yesterday gets extra points for effort, though.

It occurred to me, this morning, and not for anything like the first time, that there was this period back about 2008-2012, four years or so, when I was reading all sorts of fantasy and SF that I had no actual interest in reading. But these were the cool books, so maybe if I read them I could pass for relevant and intellectual and a real writer and on and on. All those lies. I mean, I actually suffered all the way through Susanna Clarke's Mr. Norrell and Jonathan Strange, a book so dull and overblown is deserves a place in the goddamn Tedium Hall of Fame. But there were dozens of these books, the books I read because isn't that what I was supposed to do? Isn't there something wrong with me if I'm not reading and enjoying those books? Yeah, well, anyway, I'm better now. I'm about to purge most of that stuff. Pack it up. Get rid of it.

Spooky and I took boxes of The Dinosaur Tourist and Dear Sweet Filthy word to storage this morning. It got me out of the house for half an hour.

There are the eBay auctions and Spooky's Etsy shop. Have look, and thanks.

Later,
CRK




11:27 a.m. (day before yesterday)

• Wed, 14:13: RT @FitzcairnHugh61: I don't mind at all having to pay taxes when the poor can't. What really harshes my mellow is having to pay taxes when…
• Wed, 15:48: RT @booksfordc: A spectral hue • Gidney https://t.co/BbCM29BWrZ https://t.co/75Xa3EyGs7
• Wed, 15:53: RT @adamcbest: ”I’m not living without guns.” A baby gets shot in the face by an AR-15 in yet another mass shooting and all Meghan McCain…
• Wed, 17:18: RT @WordHorde: This October, we will be bringing the Word Horde party bookmobile to the H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival in Portland, OR. We'd…
• Wed, 20:12: RT @JYSexton: If you listen to 2nd Amendment thumpers they’re all hinting at New World Order conspiracy theories, a quiet nod toward the ne…
• Wed, 20:39: RT @JYSexton: Trump altering an outdated hurricane forecast with a Sharpie in to prove he didn’t make a mistake, thus endangering lives whi…
• Wed, 20:42: RT @RepTimRyan: Trump’s trade war https://t.co/7TEhCSSpuh
• Wed, 23:12: RT @HoarseWisperer: The biggest reason people like Meghan McCain panic at the idea of having their guns taken away is because they’re terri…
• Thu, 02:39: RT @ChrisCJackson: I hope they impeach Trump over falsifying a National Weather Service forecast (18 U.S. Code § 2074) just so the dumbest…
• Thu, 02:43: RT @falconesse: This whole thread. Amazon broke the embargo on the new Margaret Atwood book. Not just by a day (which is bad enough when Am…

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Another sunny day, kinda hot. Currently, it's 93˚F, with the heat index at 96˚F. Looks like the Horror Clown was wrong about Dorian.

Never think, "This is my worst day," because the universe exists to prove you wrong, kiddos.

The only remarkable thing about yesterday...never mind. Yesterday was a profoundly unremarkable day.

They all blur together.

Please have a look at the current eBay auctions and Spooky's Dreaming Squid Dollworks and Sundries Etsy shop. Thank you.

Later,
CRK




8:55 a.m.

• Tue, 15:12: RT @NicoleCushing: I'm grateful to Word Horde for making ebooks available for purchase at https://t.co/0zbIa8bwnE. I mean, yeah, they're al…
• Tue, 15:12: RT @catvalente: Happy September everyone! I just found out that sea urchins are called sea urchins because hedgehogs used to be called urc…
• Tue, 17:17: RT @rudepundit: Hey, any Republicans who still might have a shred of a soul, pay attention to the Tories rebelling against their party to t…
• Tue, 17:17: RT @WordHorde: "The more diverse perspectives that we have, the more people will come to horror." Fright Into Flight anthologist Amber Fall…
• Tue, 17:22: RT @froomkin: Catching up on the immigration news @leegelernt explains: "the administration going after the most vulnerable…separating litt…
• Tue, 18:26: I wonder if there's anything I should borrow from The Tingleverse: The Official Chuck Tingle Role-Playing Game for… https://t.co/Mw0ltHQ3SK
• Tue, 20:06: RT @NicoleCushing: Thursday evening at 7:00 p.m., at the world-famous @carmichaelsbook . C'mon out and getcha some uneasy giggles, #Louisvi…
• Wed, 03:38: RT @carmichaelsbook: Happening at our Crescent Hill store Thursday night, come meet Nicole and check out her latest, which is on our shelve…
• Wed, 05:39: RT @MykeCole: I’m always gobsmacked that the unironic pro-2A argument essentially comes down to: “I must be armed so I can turn traitor aga…

Losing day after day after day...

I feel like I hardly slept last night, and I'm not well today.

It's a painfully clear sky hanging over us today, not even to whisper of a cloud. Currently, it's 90˚F, with the heat index at 92˚F.

Please have a look at the current eBay auctions – especially that copy of The Five of Cups (2003) – and Spooky's Dreaming Squid Dollworks and Sundries Etsy shop. Thanks.

Later, Maybe,
CRK




11:26 a.m.