Many may remember a movie from 2003 called ‘The Yes Men’. It featured two men (Aliases – Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno) leveraging a certain suave combination of social engineering and acting to infiltrate and act as spokespeople for the WTO, McDonalds, Dow Chemical. It was a flabbergasting film, and surprised many of us by showing how far peoples faith can go, based off a couple nice things said and a handshake.

last year (2009) their second movie was released, ‘The Yes Men: Fix the World’.

It looks like they may have heckled the wrong crowd this time  as the duo and film associates are being sued, delaying and possibly killing the release of film#2. the law suit stems from their impersonation of United States Chamber of Commerce during the film.

in true culture jam form, the movie has been realeased anyway via the internet. how i missed it this long, i really do not know.. Thanks to Stamina over at System Failure ( from-nowhere-to-here.blogspot.com ) for bringing this to my attention.

from http://vodo.net/yesmen :

THE YES MEN FIX THE WORLD is a screwball true story about two gonzo political activists who, posing as top executives of giant corporations, lie their way into big business conferences and pull off the world’s most outrageous pranks. This peer-to-peer special edition of the film is unique: it is preceded by an EXCLUSIVE VIDEO of the Yes Men impersonating the United States Chamber of Commerce. Because the Yes Men are being sued for this stunt, p2p is the only way that this film will get seen. Please spread the word!

Click here to download it.. watch it. if nothing else you are watching a free movie, but you are also snubbing nose at some humorless douchebags.

For those who download this bittorrent, you will find with a decent broadband connection that this downloads in about 11 minutes. a lot of great seeds out there, so share the love and upload upload upload.

I recently read a pre-release copy of Robin Spano’s “Dead Politician Society”, ready for sale at your favorite book retailer on September 1st.

On Goodreads.com, Spano is keeping a close eye on what her fans and detractors are saying, this led to some chit chat between us. I realized, “HEYwaitaminnit… i am askin questions here.. i wonder…”

Needless to say, I asked Robin if she would be down for a an email onslaught of Q&A. To my surprise, she gladly agreed!

Thanks Robin for taking the time to work with me! I appreciate your taking time out to do so :)

Read on for a mixed bag of questions!

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Erisian (E)- Tell me a little about yourself. Just general likes, dislikes, bank account numbers, you know the important stuff.

Robin Spano (RS) -  How about if you tell me your bank account numbers first and I’ll see if they have anything in common with mine. You should tell me your mother’s maiden name, too. And your childhood pet.

I’m 35. I love to write (duh), and I love to be outside and active. I love traveling. There’s so much life in the world, and while I don’t feel any frantic need to see everything in one lifetime, I love exploring new experiences, and want to have as many as possible before I die. I also love food.

I don’t like limitations. I don’t like to be around judgmental people. I don’t like crowds, though I’m trying to learn to be okay with them.

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E – How long were you working on Dead Politician Society (DPS) before you were published?

RS – Almost two years in total. One year where I was messing around with the idea, taking courses and working full-time. Then we moved to Vancouver and my husband suggested I give writing a serious try. So I took the 20 pages I had, and spent the next year turning them into a full-length novel.

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E – Did you hit any creative blocks? How did you get over them?

RS – I hit about a thousand creative blocks. Mostly related to self-doubt. Writing my second book has been a lot easier—though of course I still go through despair and anguish some days where I want to delete the whole project, it’s a lot easier now that I know I CAN finish a novel.

The best way for me to get through a block is to get outside and get physical. Something about working my body on a snowboard or fighting the tides behind the wheel of my boat is so therapeutic. I get back in touch with myself, and when I return to my computer, I’m better able to attack the story.

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E – Clare, the protag of DPS, has some strong likeness to yourself. How much of the character is based on you? How did you pick and choose characteristics?

RS – [...] basically, I created an alter-ego to go live a life I’m too scared (and unskilled) to. It’s almost like having my own holodeck.

I didn’t base Clare on myself, but I understand her because we have similar values and temperaments. She’s 13 years younger, so her temper flares more easily than mine. I’m married (faithfully), so I’m not as sexually adventurous as Clare. But there’s the motorcycle connection. The tough exterior/sensitive interior. I used to smoke. And I love the simple version of things; life without frills and snobbery.

I chose a trailer park for her background because when I was a kid, I thought it would be the coolest thing to live in a trailer, because if your house was on wheels, you’d never be tied to one place. (I think the travel bug/open road addiction hit me early.)

I gave her mechanical skills because I wish I had them. (I don’t.)

And her job as an undercover detective—especially going forward in the series—gives her scope to do all kinds of things, try on different faces, go to different places. I like writing crime fiction because the plot is built in, but because I don’t like limits, I don’t want to be tied to a police procedural or even one constant location.

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E – DPS left off in a great place for the sequel to pick up. Any clue on when the next installment will be available? Teasers on the plot you are considering?

RS – Thanks—I’m glad you think so! If all goes according to plan, Book Two is scheduled for Fall 2011 release (one year after Dead Politician Society).

Its working title is Death Plays Poker. Clare is undercover at a major televised poker tournament, trying to find out who’s been strangling poker players in their hotel rooms. It’s almost finished, and I’ve had a lot of fun writing it.

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E – What is your work schedule like when you’re writing? How do you keep yourself on track? How does the affect family time?

RS – I’ve learned to hoard my mornings, because that’s when I’m most creative. I stay on track pretty easily then. Afternoons are trickier, because my mind starts melting, getting more scattered. So I’ve learned to go with that, to use afternoons for other things, like answering interview questions :)
I try to spend evenings and weekends with my husband — he’s good about letting me write if I want to, but I think it’s important to get out in the real world and spend time with real people.

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E – Your favorite music to listen to while you were scrawling away at DPS?

RS – I don’t listen to music when I’m writing. What I love about music is lyrics, and they distract me too much from work.

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E – What is the best and worst books you have read in the last decade, and why.

RS – I hate knocking other writers, because I know how much work goes into any novel, even if I don’t like it. So let me answer both parts of this question with Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code.

Why it was the WORST: The writing is technically atrocious, according to the Snob School of How You’re Supposed To Write. And to be honest, I agree with the snob school in this case—I spent most of the book cringing, silently editing, wondering why his editor hated him so much to let the book slide through to publication with so many errors and such bad use of language.

Why it was the BEST: As much as I cringed, I read the whole thing. I turned each page eagerly; I stayed awake later than I wanted to; I even read during the day (I rarely do that) because I was hooked on the plot. And it sold—there’s something about this book, and the writing, that made millions of people worldwide crave more. As a writer, I’d be a fool not to try to learn something from that.

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E – If a genie were to pop out of your kitchen sink and offer you the opportunity to co-author a book with anyone, who would you pervert the time stream to rock the literary world with?

RS – John Irving. I think his writing is genius, and I think his one major gap (plotting) is something I could help him with. (ha ha.)

I love the way he gets into his characters, observes (and shows) their motivations, fears, desires. He shows them influenced by their setting, their upbringing, incidents in their lives. And he makes them alive; he moves them through the story like real people move through the world. But for my taste, they move a bit too organically. Other than A Prayer for Owen Meany, which is as near flawless as I’ve ever seen a book, I don’t think he devotes enough time or attention toward crafting a tight plot.

In my dream collaboration, we’d start with a novel he wants to write, and he’d send me his first draft. Then I’d take it, work it through using Track Changes, and guide the plot into something tighter and maybe more gripping for readers. Then I’d send it back to him, and he’d make the final call on all things.

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E – What is the most beautiful thing you have ever seen?

RS – Morning. It sounds so corny, but nothing fills me with joy like the sun rising over mountains, or a highway, or an ocean, or a lake. It’s like the whole world is yours, filled with promise and beginnings. All you have to do is reach out and shape it into what you want to see and do.

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E – What is your preferred reading format? Hardcover, Trade paper, Massmarket paper, ebook? What makes the difference for you?

RS – I like print books. I usually buy paperback because why not save the money? Also paperback is easier to lug around to doctors’ offices and on airplanes.

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E – It’s no use denying it, i have proof you have killed at least 10 people, how do you hide the bodies [...]?

RS – Ha ha! Well, I do have a boat, and we’re right by the ocean…

I miss the days of cassette mix-tapes. I am a firm believer that unless you put it in a concrete order and spend the time to make a cover for it, it is nothing more than a generic playlist. not the same as making a tape, but  it is a creative outlet i have always and will likely always enjoy, regardless of the medium available. As such, I spend a fair amount of time each year, making compilations that i personally enjoy, and them make them available for other music lovers..

In case anyone is interested, newest compilation is available via this post. it will be online for maybe a month or so (post to be edited once i remove it)..

Just a little something to help break up the work week.

Music varies from punk to electropop.
Definitely has more of a dirty rock, drum heavy feel to it this time regardless of the genre flow that occurs.

Titled ‘Murdrum’, which is one of my favorite Palindromes.

front cover (click to view)

Murdrum

Playtime 1hr 02min 15sec
109 MBs

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01- Bloodstains,
Butt Trumpet – ( buttwrenching.com )

02- Jockstrap,
Tomahawk – ( Myspace.com/tomahawkofficial )

03- Conscience killer,
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – ( blackrebelmotorcycleclub.com )

04- Mind eraser, No chaser,
Them Crooked Vultures – ( themcrookedvultures.com )

05- Devil’s music [w-Adl],
Teddybears – ( devilsmusic.org )

06- Sick,
Sneaker Pimps – ( Wikipedia: Sneaker Pimps )

07- My boy builds coffins,
Florence and the Machine – ( florenceandthemachine.net )

08- No Aloha,
The Breeders -( breedersdigest.net )

09- Bon Bon Babies,
March Violets – ( marchviolets.co.uk )

10- Lights go down,
Telepathe – ( Myspace.com/telepathe )

11- Heart skipped a beat,
XX – ( Myspace.com/thexx )

12- The Bushmaster,
Pigface – ( Wikipedia: Pigface )

13- Pipeline,
Anthrax – ( anthrax.com )

14- Boy crazy,
The Tubes – ( thetubes.com )

15- Slummer (The Slum),
The Detroit Cobras – ( detroitcobras.org )

16- Four Score,
CainCorso – ( Myspace.com/caincorso )

17- Blowing Kisses,
The Decomposers – (defunct before the intertubes existed )

18- The Clap,
The Unicorns – ( Wikipedia: The Unicorns )

19- Logic,
Operator, Please – ( operatorpleaseband.com )

I claim no copyright on the above music, consider it fan marketing for the bands involved. it is all good music and worth checking out to make your own decision. BUY SOME RECORDS PEOPLE!.
Enjoy.

download:
Right click-> Save as -
[erisian]_2010_-_Murdum.zip

I am always looking for ways to improve, so please leave positive and negative feedback..

Basic information-

• Compiled for continuity from the first song to the last. If burning to CD, it should be burnt to disc “gapless” in order to remove any annoying interruptions and play smoothly. Playing on MP3 these gaps are fairly inevitable, if you use a crossfader, i would suggest no longer than 1 second.

• Please listen to it from beginning to end at least the first time. First time through, the song order is important. everything is placed in a specific relationship with the song before and after. After the first play through, skipping to tracks you enjoy will not detract from the overall feel of it.

• This compilation was created to fit on an 80 minute CD-R

Robin Spano’s “Dead Politician Society”.. How to put this.. I was happy but not surprised.

Let me explain.

Dead Politician Society (DPS) is an undercover detective novel. The Mayor is poisoned and dies on stage during a speech. A cryptic untraceable email from the killer is received by the Toronto star, it is signed by a rumored Utopian secret society on the local college campus. The police send in Clare under cover to see if she can fish for more details. they have no other leads.

Clare really leads the novel. She is very likable. Working her first undercover job, she is prone to some understandable mistakes. Clare drinks, smokes, rides a motorbike. She juggles guys and overall does what needs to be done to get the job in the can. I really enjoyed her as a character and am glad this is geared to be a series.

With detective novels, in many cases they are designed to give you all the same clues the investigators receive. If you work it a bit, you can come up with the conclusion to the book in advance. Whodunit mysteries at their best.

DPS did not disappoint in this regard. The culprit was with in my reach from the very beginning, mulligans and red herrings abound, and the reader picks through them to determine truth.

The story is not told from a single perspective, instead, from the point of view of 5-7 folks. Chapters are short, 1-2 pages per. This makes for a very fast book, quick details, not overly described but neither is it lacking description.

Ultimately, this is not a sleeper hit or New York Times best seller novel. For fans of the genre, I believe that this and future Clare Vengel novels will be important to keep an eye out for. I look forward to the second installment.

Dead Politician Society is stated to become available for North American sale in September 2010.

~~

Note to the publisher: I loved the cover art on this. As I read it as an ARC e-book, I obviously have no idea what the deadtree copy will look like, but I hope you went for gritty pulp, not some glossy garbage. Rough pulp novels have a feel to them that make detective novels FEEL better.. Give the designer a 6-pack of some nice micro brew for me, he/she deserves it…

While you are at it, send a sixer to Robin Spano.. Congrats Robin on a great book :)

~~

About Robin Spano:

Robin is a born and raised Torontian. She was a physics student, but dropped out to become a rough and tough biker chick, cruising North America for fun. She is married and living in the Vancouver area.. She is also, as you could likely guess, an Author.

Check out her website or the interview she recently did on Goodreads.com

http://www.robinspano.com
Crimes Scene Interview with Robin Spano

THANKS to publisher ECW Press and Netgalley for early access to this as an e-book

NO THANKS to the FTC for requiring this lame FTC review disclaimer

i fail at “slimming down”..

I PROMISE THAT I AM OFFICIALLY STARTING AS OF TODAY!!

for anyone interested in the 2010 Summer Slimdown, check out Carina’s site.. and feel free to mock me.. i deserve it this time..

Yesterday, Ken Coffman sent me not only a dead-tree copy of ‘Exchange’ by Dale Cozort, but he also included a copy of his own book, “Steel Waters” which i am greatly looking forward to reading..

the whole point of the Slimdown challenge was to NOT buy any new books, instead, focus on the books in my to be read pile and clean some of them out… instead, i bought 17 new books.

i compounded this issue significantly…

last week i opened my mailbox and found a pleasant little note from Powells.com advising me that they were having 4 days where they would cover all shipping costs. because i live in the Portland area, i can always avoid shipping costs by buying online and performing an in-store pick up.. but where is the fun in that? also, i like receiving mail. boxes of niceness delivered to me, bringing a smile to my face. i do not like shipping to my home. work sucks, so i like to have things sent here, it brightens my day and makes my cubicle joyous.

with this in mind, i could not resist…
i had $14 credit on powells.com and decided to use it by purchasing 17 crappy sci-fi novels all of which were under a dollar. these were then shipped to my work.

i think i cried a little when the box arrived… the attached picture is all the glorious trash sci-fi that was inside said box.

From the packing slip:

1 @ $0.88      Eves Rib-Chalder, Bryn
1 @ $0.88      Corpseman – Sherman, Joel Henry
1 @ $0.88      Happy Policeman – Anthony, Patricia
1 @ $0.88      Iris – Barton, William
1 @ $0.88      Warp Angel – Hopen, Stuart
1 @ $0.88      Big Empty – Luceno, James
1 @ $0.88      Blue Limbo – Green, Terence M
1 @ $0.88      Master of Life & Death – Silverberg, Robert
1 @ $0.88      Great Fetish – De Camp, L Sprague
1 @ $0.74      Godmakers – Pendleton, Don
1 @ $0.74      Summerland – James, L Dean
1 @ $0.74      Rogue Queen – De Camp, L Sprague
1 @ $0.74      Roil of Stars – Wismer, Don
1 @ $0.74      Wrath of Poseidon – Betancourt, John G
1 @ $0.74      Illegal Alien – Luceno, James
1 @ $0.49      Second Trip – Silverberg, Robert
1 @ $0.74      Jade Darcy & the Zen Pirates – Goldin, Stephen

Carrier         : Economy Mail

Item total      : $  13.59 (17 items)
Shipping total  :     0.00

TOTAL           : $  13.59

So to sum it up.. in the last two days alone, i have received 1 book i have already read, and 18 new books were added to my TBR (to be read) pile..

hooray for books?

I participated in a fun little interview Carina at RTL is doing. She highlights different reader/reviewer blogs that she follows and gets info on the site admin’s reading habits when they were growing up.

check it out if you are interested. If you are friend or family,. you probably already know what it says regarding me though…

“Blah blah blah, read read read, jason quit making that annoying noise, read read read”

well, all except the bit about annoying noises..
though that would have been an accurate description of me as a child as well.

Reading through Life, Reading Roots – Jason from FNORDinc

Thanks Carina!

~~

If you are interested in other folks who have also been interviewed, check out the below sites. I personally read a couple of these sites weekly, so it is nice to see where everyone’s habits formed.

1. Reading Roots: Jennifer from Girls Gone Reading
2. Reading Roots: Ash from English Major Junk Food
3. Reading Roots: Amy from Amy Reads
4. Reading Roots: Mystica of Musings from Sri Lanka
5. Reading Roots: Jennifer from Teach Mentor Texts

Review: Our Tragic Universe, Scarlett Thomas

– Forewarning, this is a positive review though I can see where it might not appear that way. It was just a very hard book to write about! –

Our Tragic Universe (originally to be titled ‘Death of the Author’) is a nonstandard plot. Part time writer Meg is living in a small town England. She is living unhappily with her long term boyfriend and her dog, barely scraping by. Meg is continually trying to write her “Real Novel”, editing and paring down her words, never able to solidify where she wants to take it. In the meantime, she takes on the grunt work of the literary world, reviews of trash novels for a newspaper, and ghost writing teen fiction using formulaic methods.

Meg is caught in an interesting kludge of personal issues. Her best friend is having an affair that is messy. long time friends have stopped speaking to her. Her boyfriend is spiraling into depression and taking her on a manic roller coaster as he falls. She feels trapped and unaccomplished. Her only real bonus is a love interest in a man nearly twice her age, married, who she doesn’t dare see anymore since they accidentally kissed. Early in the book, Meg inadvertently takes on a review for some kind of new age “how the afterlife works by bob-know-it-all” book and the flavor of the story really begins to ripen. Oh yeah, and I should mention there is a mysterious beast prowling the neighboring townships scaring the hell out of the residents…

The story is vibrant but many readers may be confused by the cluttered nature of the novel. it is cluttered just as life itself is, so it is fitting, though as a result, difficult to read. At some points, OTU read like a reality TV show for a person who has absolutely nothing interesting going on in their life, detailing minutia like knitting. At other points, it is a technical reading manual for obsessive compulsive literature majors. This could have been toned down and approached less lecture like, but in the end, was an important part of the novel’s structure. .

Previously mentioned, the plot of Tragic Universe is nonstandard in the fact that it really doesn’t have a core/central plot. Items that you think are key plot points are proven to be red-herrings, no more important to life than the number of concurrent green lights you drove through on the way to work today. Interestingly though, it highlights how many things we notice daily which have no importance, but to which we add false importance.

Regardless, all of the characters are interesting and well thought out. it was these that kept me coming back for more. I nearly stopped reading this book 7-8 times. Each time I prepped to give up on it, some small detail would catch my attention again and I was drawn back in for another 30-40 pages.

Ultimately, I believe this waxing/waning of interest may have been part of Scarlett’s intent as she wrote this “storyless-story”. Really, it is nothing more than a sign of the abilities of the author, in that she wrote something so realistic/painful, that giving up and utter enthrallment are with in breaths of each other. Reading OTU was like a broken ceiling fan on a very hot day, I kept fiddling with it- trying to make it work.  Frustrated, at times felt like a pointless endeavor, but in the end, when the gears moved and the air flowed over my sweat beaded forehead, the effort was worth it, a welcome cool breeze to mellow the experience.

I would not suggest this book for people who are easily frustrated, trust me here. Also, if you prefer your books garnished, placed on a plate, and then fed to you in bite size portions, you may not enjoy this and should perhaps look toward other reading material.

To quote the novel (referencing everyday life having less “story”), “You just have to let go of the plot when it gets too much. Do something else”. Though there were many times I wanted to stop reading, I instead just took breaks from it and am glad I completed it.  Our Tragic Universe was a literary vacation, a trip away from the normal methodologies employed by authors, memorable in both it’s genius, complexity, and bearable frustration.

Our Tragic Universe is slated for US public release 9/1/2010, published by HMH.

Other reviews:
Darice.org – Our Tragic Universe (Darice De Cuba)
The View from Here (Literary Magazine/e-zine)

About Scarlett Thomas:

Thomas is a native to the UK, currently living in Devon with her BF and dog (readers of OTU will find similarity here). She has written 8 novels and a grip of shorts to date.

As an English Literature teacher for the University of Kent, her books reflect a level of knowledge and book savvy that is many authors today are missing.

Though old (2007) and in reference to earlier novels  ‘PopCo’ and ‘The End of Mr Y’, check out an interview with her over at Bookslut. it is a good read and nicely familiarizes readers with her personality.
http://www.bookslut.com/features/2007_03_010799.php

Author’s Website: scarlettthomas.co.uk

Thanks to publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Netgalley for early access to this as an e-book

No thanks to the FTC for requiring this lame FTC review disclaimer

Yuki is in third grade. He has no friends, other kids think he is bizarre and rarely talk to him. This is not surprising as he talks to “imaginary” beings like Superstar.

Superstar is a being who lives on the third floor of his school, off limits to students due to some unspoken danger. Occasionally he (or other beings) coming down to create havoc, steal things, and generally stir up trouble. the closer that Yuki gets to the world that Superstar rules, the hard it is for him to differentiate our reality from this other one.

I really enjoyed this graphic novel.  It is presented fully translated, but in  classic manga format ( read from right to left). It comes with a corrugated cardboard sleeve protecting the book itself. The art work is very European with multiple interpretations to the meanings of various panels. text is sparse throughout the story, relying on various obscure and dark story elements presented in the images.

The Graphic Novel is presented by VIZ Media, almost entirely in black and white, and totals 464 pages.

I do not know that this graphic novel is really geared to most readers. if you avoid art house films, dislike subtitles, and prefer a story that is hand fed to you, avoid this.

This is more for those who like dark introspective genres, multiple possible interpretations, beautiful artwork.

For anyone looking for a more technical review, just drop gogo monster in google and you will find a ton of info. I will leave the discussion of allegory and  societal comparisons to those who are more fluent in manga. I am just a tourist in the genre…

i will get all y’all sons of bitches if you mock my bow tie.. I will hunt you..

well, perhaps not, it was a fun photo to take..

i really want to read a book, but folks want to chit chat.. Can not wait to get home..

stacy’s ma and pop took us all up river on their boat. The excuse was ‘its taco tuesday’
ended up in a boat dock eating damn fine (and very spicy) tacos. Mmmmm.
is a local hang out for a classic car club. Pic here is only two of a couple dozen.

not to regress, but my mouth is on fire and I need to eat some dirt or something in order to survive… Later…