Saturday, October 30, 2004
I am not a number! Actually, I am a number: 17, to be exact. Well, maybe 16 -- but I prefer 17, dammit! Yes, I want to be that measly 17th person to have bought Max Barry's Syrup in Canada so far this year. No wonder he's upset at us. If I were an author and no copies of my first book were on any shelves of any bookstores for potential buyers to read the dust jackets of -- maybe the first chapter of while sipping a grade latte mocha something-or-other in a comfy leather easy chair -- I would be pissed at that country's citizens, too. Damn them! Damn them all to literary hell!
Don't get me wrong, I'm not upset with Barry; in fact, I went so far as to print his post and share it with others -- I only do that with the really entertaining stuff. That's more, this slap in the face of my country during my bereavement has done nothing to dampen eagerness to read both Syrup and Jennifer Government. I am, after all, number 17, and proud of it.
It's just that, as a keen observer, aficionado even, of marketing, he should know that not having a product displayed in any form is the ideal way to not sell it. No impulse buy is possible when there is nothing to buy, right? (Some of my past follow-ups have already said that.) Until I visited his Web page, I knew nothing of Syrup, and to my knowledge, had never seen it in a bookstore; I first laid eyes on a copy when my chapters.indigo.ca order arrived. Now, honestly, can Canadians at large really be blamed for this marketing black hole?
posted by media_dystopia @ 23:47 [ link | top | home ]
Wednesday, October 27, 2004
Incendiary? Ineffectual, more like. I finally saw Fahrenheit 9/11. I had no intention to see it in protest of Michael Moore's insulting interference in the Canadian election, but it was a much-needed social activity, and the host was willing to line his pockets with royalties, so I was willing to give it a try -- and ended up enjoying it. It was certainly very entertaining, and resulted in a fair amount of incredulous laughter and head-shaking. It won't affect the U.S. election, mind you; perhaps if he had an ounce of grace at the Academy Awards -- and elsewhere -- maybe his reputation would be one that provoked thought instead of anger. Then again, I saw it with a group of left-leaning Canadians and Democrats -- people who went into it already disliking Bush, and who could only have expected that dislike to be ratcheted up a bit more than watching the news. Personally, I thought Fahrenheit 9/11 was a blinding glimpse of the obvious; even the things I didn't know fit perfectly into the Bush paradigm, so there were no surprises for me. In fact, the only thing that's surprising about it is the fact that people actually think it's going to change the outcome of the November 2 election. They obviously aren't wondering, as I am, how many people are going to vote Republican just to spite Moore; he is, after all, using conservative-media techniques, à la Fox News -- you know, both "fair" and "balanced" -- on undecided voters. (I know how I felt when he told me how to vote.)
posted by media_dystopia @ 23:54 [ link | top | home ]
Monday, October 25, 2004
Hypocrisy is also in circulation, I see. So, I'm in line at the local supermarket when the customer ahead of me finds, much to his horror, a Canadian penny amid his American change. Oh the calamity! You'd think some Canuck had pissed in his Corn Flakes or something. His brief diatribe, complete with head-shaking and even some audible grumbling, ended with him saying to the sympathetic clerk, "I don't even go there!" The lad awaiting payment was chuckling and commiserating as best he could with the man; he even noted that they, the clerks, get Canadian pennies all the time. The irate customer leaves, and now it's my turn to have my item laser-swiped.
Up till now, I had said nothing, only grinned; I even let slide the fact that the Maple Leaf-phobe was paying for his nine items or less with exact change, thus holding me up in the express line. Instead, I told the clerk, "The same thing happens to me all the time," -- I held open my wallet and fanned a Canadian $5, $10, and $20, Sir Wilfred Laurier, Sir John A. Macdonald, and Her Majesty herself resplendent in blue, purple, and green respectively (or, if you prefer the flip side, kids enjoying winter, peacekeepers, and the common loon) -- "except I get stuck with bills." And I left it at that, hiding my citizenship behind my smile. He laughed, but I really don't think he got it, even with the visual clues from our "Monopoly money." (Now, if only I had had some Canadian Tire money...)
Fast forward an hour and I'm emptying my pockets of the change, hoping to pawn the coins off on my mother. (What else are purses for?) There, alongside Lincoln, the bald eagle, and other engraved American icons, is King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand, his profile adorning a 50 satang coin -- a piece which, unlike ours, could not pass itself off in either size or color as an American one. Sheesh.
My fellow Canadians, irony is alive and well in the pockets of Americans.
posted by media_dystopia @ 22:38 [ link | top | home ]
Thursday, October 21, 2004
Slogging though. Time for reading or anything other than preparing for a move has been very limited, but I did managed to finish off Live Without A Net and Crashcourse. Lou Anders managed to put together a rather eclectic collection of short stories. Thanks to it and Future Crimes, I'm eager to explore the world created by Michael Swanwick in "Smoke and Mirrors: Four Scenes From the Post-Utopian Future" and "The Dog Said Bow-Wow" -- a world inhabited by "people" like Surplus and Darger.
As for Wilhelmina Baird's novel, I was a little disappointed by her trying too damn much to be ultra-hip, not to mention the first-person perspective. Sure, William Gibson may have called it "a pungent, gleamy-dark street-future, illuminated with memorable style, a gratifyingly nasty sense of humor, and a killer eye for twisted technological detail," and that dusk-jacket quote -- a thumbs-up if ever there was one; after all, he should know -- may have heightened my sense of anticipation, but it lacked any of his subtlety, for lack of a better word; hers was not Gibsonian cyberpunk. That being said, her next two offerings, Clipjoint and Psykosis, have been purchased as cheaply as her first and are waiting to be read.
Now that these two books are done, I picked up one of Max Barry's, right? Actually, I'm about to start The Difference Engine, the only work of Gibson I have yet to read. I know, I know, I should be ashamed of myself. If it's any consolation, I held off for all these years because of my irrational dislike for co-author and fellow father of cyberpunk Bruce Sterling, and because I've not a fan of alternate history, much less steampunk.
Follow-up: Two weeks, albeit sporadically, of Gibson and Sterling's Victorian setting forced me to sweeten the reading with Nanotech, edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois, starting with Paul Di Filippo's "Any Major Dude."
posted by media_dystopia @ 23:16 [ link | top | home ]
Saturday, October 09, 2004
A nod and a wink. Wearing Tool apparel is not just a conversation piece -- it's the International Brotherhood of Maynard Worshippers' secret handshake. I'm not saying it happens all the time, but in the three years since I purchased mine at my first Tool concert, I've had store clerks, restaurant waiters, fast-food employees, and others in the service industry compliment me on it. In fact, one glance at the swag and their eyes light up and they switch into fan mode. The world is tuned out as we exchange album news, concert experiences, trivia -- whatever Tool- and A Perfect Circle-related can be crammed into those few seconds before their mundane work must resume and the specials have to be read or the next customer has to be helped. For that brief time, we are not strangers, but members of a secret society, cult even, whose paths have fortuitously crossed.
posted by media_dystopia @ 18:39 [ link | top | home ]
Friday, October 08, 2004
November 2: a day to look forward to. It's been a long time since I've had the urge to buy a new CD; trust A Perfect Circle to come to my audio rescue with the election-day -- theirs, not ours -- release of eMOTIVe. (To be followed two weeks later by the aMOTION DVD, including a bonus remix audio CD.) Hearing about the release a few weeks ago was certainly welcome news during this stressful time; any day one gets word of new Tool or APC is a banner one, indeed.
And imagine Maynard and the boys covering John Lennon's immortal classic, "Imagine." I just watched the video on the band's Web page; together with the animated "Counting Bodies Like Sheep to the Rhythm of the War Drums" -- a variation on "Pet"'s lyrically relevant theme, and one of the two new songs on eMOTIVe -- words are not being visually minced, and neither are the indictments. And that voice! I'm not even sure what adjective to use. Soulful? Mournful? However it's described, Maynard has once again sent shivers up and down my spine. The voice, the music, the imagery, the politics -- Lennon would have been proud.
Follow-up: In the days that followed the writing of this post, I listened to "Imagine" over and over, repeatedly streaming it off of APC's Web page. (The irony here being that I never liked the original version.) It was gutsy of the band to cover such an iconic piece, but they pulled it off admirably; it's a beautiful tribute to both the song and the man.
Follow-up: And they covered "When the Levee Breaks"? I just came. No, seriously, I need some Kleenex.
Follow-up: Five days before the official release, I listened to the entirety of eMOTIVe, start to finish, courtesy of the local new-rock station. Wow. Talk about unique covers. APC's interpretation of "When the Levee Breaks," alone, could not be any more different than Led Zeppelin's.
posted by media_dystopia @ 23:38 [ link | top | home ]
Thursday, October 07, 2004
Okay, television is permitted. I put aside the Lou Anders-edited Live Without A Net -- again -- to give Wilhelmina Baird's Crashcourse a try. And, much to my shame, I have not cracked the spine of either Max Barry novel. (In my defense, though, I am waiting to savor them at an appropriate time, whenever that may be.)
I have been watching television, but nothing from network television or the fall season in general, with the exception of a few Discovery Channel shows and a newscast or two from Newsworld International. That's right, no West Wing, no Law & Order, no CSI -- whether set in Las Vegas, Miami, or New York -- no Enterprise, no nothing.
I have, however, been watching -- re-watching, to be precise -- some great stuff on tape and DVD: Twin Peaks (the entire series, minus the two-hour pilot -- a perennial source of eye-rolling for me); All Creatures Great & Small (Series 3, which was still wrapped in plastic -- a Christmas present my ever-traveling father never got around to); The Vicar of Dibley ("Autumn & Winter" and "Spring & Summer"); The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes box set (Jeremy Brett is such a joy to watch); and, a family favorite, Cadfael (all four series, the third of which's "A Morbid Taste for Bones" just introduced me to the stunning Anna Friel, whose name I finally connected to a face). Throw in another round of Cadfael -- what can I say, I love the show; Derek Jacobi is perfect in the title role -- and some movies, the best of which being Love, Actually and all its DVD extras, and you have the visual entertainment for this darkest of times.
I should point out that I'm out of the country and unable to watch the new season -- hallelujah! -- of my beloved Corner Gas, the funniest show on television and, therefore, the best medicine for me right now. (Fear not, a friend is taping it.) I am happy, nay, ecstatic that a DVD of the first season was made and is being released later this month. I may order it and have it sent to me in the U.S. as a bulwark against the stress.
posted by media_dystopia @ 18:18 [ link | top | home ]