Among my take-aways from the recent World Fantasy Convention in San Jose is this excellent fantasy and science fiction story collection from San Francisco publisher Night Shade Books. Not only is the publisher more-or-less local, there are also a few Northern California authors featured among the 15 stories in the anthology.

Karen Joy Fowler (Santa Cruz/Davis) gives us “The Pelican Bar”, about a very difficult path to learning responsibility.

Ellen Klages (San Francisco) wrote “A Practical Girl”, a really sweet story where history, mathematics, and magic intersect.

Finally, Peter S. Beagle (Davis), provided “Sleight of Hand”, a story where there’s (so he says) no magic, but wishes can come true with a little prestedigitation.

I reviewed these stories and the rest of the collection on my personal blog.

Tip: Get the quantity of “Everyday” in your tea increased to make up for the missing sugar. *giggles*

Title of this post inspired by the lyrics of “Sugar Sugar” by The Archies.

Full disclosure: I was lucky enough not to pay for my ticket to see Spring Awakening at the Community Theater - though I would be happy to pay for the show.  One of the few new shows on stage these days (it didn’t come from a movie, TV show, another stage show, nor is it a revival – though it is based on a book).

If you watched last season’s 90210 (I only watched the first few episodes, swear), you might be familiar with a few bars of  a Spring Awakening tune.  Having seen the show, however, I am fairly confident you won’t find it produced by too many public high schools.  This show is not suitable for parents.  (Also, there be partial spoilers ahead.)

Well, that’s the plan, at least (info). Here’s the man in his own words: “November, Friday the 13th, I will attempt to beat the world record of ‘most tattoos done in 24 hours.’  I have learned that the actual number to beat is 801 tattoos set on Nov. 17, 2008 by Hollis Cantrell.  That is an incredible amount of tattoos to do in 24 hours. I began to wonder if I should still do this…This is twice the amount of tattooing I had anticipated.”

But he’s got a lot in his favor: he’s a great artist, as you can see by the photos, and he’s offering four designs to keep the process streamlined: one, a cute little bat; two, the classic “LA”; third, a heart with wings; and fourth, lucky number 13–since it’ll be Friday the 13th when he does this. And you can’t argue with the price: $20 for the first, $10 for each additional one. You can check out Jeremy’s blog here.

Stop by even if you’re an indecisive wuss like me and not gonna get ink done: they’re gonna have live music, tasty food, booze, t-shirts with a custom design you can see in this photoset I just made, and a raffle for cool stuff.

Image hands of a princess- autumn day in the park Uploaded on November 8, 2009 by cichlee {novella}

Amazing detail in tatoos. I love that even without much English, she understood I wanted a closeup of her hands. So beautiful to a midwest girl like me. I’ve lived abroad and had people talk at me in languages I didn’t understand. It was interesting to do this here.

The Downtown Palace

Ooooooo, spooky! Former frontman of the Strokes, Julian Casablancas, has a residency at the Palace Theatre this month, and damn is this show hot! It’s the first time in quite a while that anyone has played a rock show there, in this gem of a classic Broadway movie house–so you can listen to a guy from New York sing songs about New York while in a venue that is actually as old as the ones in New York–a rarity out here, I know.

His new album is really pretty good–we’ve all been listening to it around at work–and I know you’ll enjoy the show. So we’ve got tickets for you! To win, tell me your favorite garage rock band. “Garage rock” is an elastic term, so you can tell me everything from Weezer to the Ramones to Death (the Detroit punk band). Hey, ho! Let’s go!

The Minneapolis Police Department is looking for some fans.

That is, the department has just launched a Facebook page,following the lead of countless law enforcement agencies across the country.

These departments are scrambling, like many big institutions, to connect with people who are abandoning legacy communications media in favor of social networking sites.

“It’s just another way to reach out to people and capture the ones we’re missing — kids, college students,” said department spokesman Jesse Garcia.

You have to love the double entendre of “and capture the ones we’re missing — kids, college students”

A strib comment:

I can’t wait to see the updates

MPD . . . is tasing an non resisting thug
MPD . . . is settling a lawsuit
MPD . . . is getting sued again
MPD . . . just really kicked some butt
MPD . . . is shooting first and letting god sort them out

For Angelenos needing to shop at IKEA, the Carson and Burbank locations are the usual choices.  I go to the Carson location, not just because it is closer to my home, but because, at the other end of the shopping center sits Five Guys Burgers.  Five Guys is not new to these pages,  having been (mixed) reviewed by Faboomama and commented on by others.  But it’s all subjective, and, subjectively, I love the place (disclosure/confession: I used to go to their original DC-area locations).

So now, I rarely (ok, never) go to IKEA without hitting Five Guys.  One triggers the other, just like a ciggy in a bar.  Plus, I figure I deserve it after getting that thousand yard IKEA Stare after an hour or so inside the Swedish happy torture factory.  As to whether the trip to IKEA was really necessary in the first place, or just an excuse for a Five Guys burger & fries, I’ll never te-ell….

IT STOPPED RAINING!!!

so, it it over? i sure hope so. one thing is certain, i don’t want to hear the word drought mentioned in these parts again for a long time. i am certainly grateful i take marta and at least avoid the traffic disasters associated with this weather.

how about the rest of you, are you surviving? any flooding? any traffic horror stories to report?

Proceedings of the Sale goes to HCG Foundation.

Dr. Ajai Kumar & Mrs. Bhagya Ajaikumar
Swasti gallery & HCG Foundation
Contemporary Art Gallery,
HCG Towers, # 8, Kalinga Rao Road,
Sampangi Ram Nagar, Bangalore- 560 027.

MQM Rally photoshopped

Thanks to this keen-eyed blogger, we have now a ‘large presence of MQM in Baltistan, Skardu’. The image is photoshopped to show a larger crowd. More details here

La Libertad focuses on the ordinary daily life of a simple woodcutter as it ponders the significance of the mundane. Los Muertos follows a man’s attempts to reunite with the daughter he hasn’t seen in the thirty years he’s been in prison. Fantasma is a meta-commentary on his first two films that uses the lead actors from his previous films to ponder the themes presented in them. Liverpool yet again brings a solitary figure in search of his own past.

Alonso will be in attendance at screenings through Saturday and also presents a Master Class for filmmakers and those aspiring to be.

Cord of Wood

The times they are a-changin’. It used to be give the chimney a thorough cleaning and order a cord of wood. Nowadays it’s check the website or e-mail alerts before thinking about sitting around a cozy fire.

Winter Spare the Air runs: November 1, 2009 – February 28, 2010

Get Notifications:
* Check the newspaper, radio, and TV
* Check the web for wood burning status.
* Sign up for e-mail or phone alerts.
* If that’s not enough there is a widget.

Report wood smoke concerns (snitch on the neighbors) call 1-877-4NO-BURN (1-877-466-2876).

One way to get that ‘warm cozy’ during “Spare the Air” is to put on a wearable fleece blanket with sleeves (odd looking monk robe), then put in a sold by Amazon Fireplace DVD, or try Comcast.

Comcast On Demand:
TV Entertainment go to Yule Log & More- click on Fireplace – or TV Entertainment scroll down to TV Screensavers.

I can not recommend the 20 minutes of “Island Sunset”. The squawking bird sounds turned thoughts of peaceful, soothing and warm to thoughts of an Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle! – - but that’s another Christmas story.

Follow SpareTheAir on twitter.

This is an amazing question for me, because multi-player role-playing games and table top RPGs and I have a long, rich, and mixed history. What about you? What’s your history and love affair with role-playing games? Shout it out in the comments!

And yes, I’ll bare all, don’t worry, just behind the jump:

John Darnielle’s struggles with his faith may be the motivation behind his latest Mountain Goats album, but if previous shows are any indication, I expect a high level of devotion from his fans tonight at the Showbox. Whether the topic is fevered dreams or conversations with belief, the shows tend to be populated by legions of fans, getting sweatily pumped by the shared intensity of the moment. However, the real reason for this post is to encourage you to show up early enough to catch Owen Pallett, who, when he’s not arranging Arcade Fire string sections or Richard Kelly soundtracks, records and performs as Final Fantasy. Although his loop-happy violin covers of Joanna Newsom and Bloc Party may catapulted him to blogfame, his original material is also strong, creative, and engaging. Performances are typically solo, although sometimes a friend comes along to provide live overhead projector animations. I promise that this all sounds a whole lot more precious and treacly than it really is. $20, doors at 8. [showbox]

Learn how to make Tamales at Tarascos on Nov. 17

For those of you who like to know how to make stuff, my favorite Mexican joint in Silver Lake, Tarascos is hosting a Tamale Class on Tuesday, November 17 at 10:00 am and 7:00 pm. The class is only $15.00, which includes all of the  materials you will need to make a small batch of your very own tamales from scratch.

Students will have the option to take their tamales home to bake on their own or Tarascos will bake the tamales for you and let you pick them up later (tamales take about 4 hours to bake).  Students will learn how to make chicken, cheese and vegetarian tamales.

To sign up, call Tarascos at 323.669.3300. Click here to follow Tarascos on twitter for their daily specials.

Certainly, it’s pretty common to go see Tuesday night’s Comedy Death Ray and have surprise appearances by the likes of Sarah Silverman or Louis C.K., but even the lesser knowns are comedians who you can bet will soon enough be appearing on Comedy Central or SNL (before they binge out on coke, OD, and live on forever through “underground” YouTube videos).

On Wednesday night, again, for only $5, Lindy Gomez will be performing her new one woman piece, “Will That Be All?” mocking race and minimum wage jobs. Or so the synopsis leads me to believe:

Have you slapped your cell phone shut after a heated one-on-one with a East Indian customer service operator and thought, maybe I’ll order Indian tonight? Or accepted a towel from a spicy Mexican bathroom attendant and thought, maybe later I should download some Manu Chao? Or better yet, gotten a basket of spicy fries from a desperate L.A. waitress and thought, thank god I have my SAG card. These are the invisible people who keep your passable existence moving from day-to-day. And they demand you attention…for a solid 28 minutes until you troll next door for a dirty martini.

While you may not recognize her, it doesn’t matter – she’s hot. Just look at the picture!

However, you’ll recognize the the director of the show as the aloof and smarmy lady from the 1-800-DENTIST commercials. Suzi Barret was also recently featured on Los Angeles blogs with her video, “I Hate L.A.” Also hot.

Also on the evening’s bill: The Apple Sisters in “Thanks for Stuffing.” Again, all for $5! Show begins at 8pm.

Reservations and info.
Upright Citizens Brigade, 5919 Franklin Ave., Los Angeles

Over at the venerable WoW.com, they had huge news that I think is worth sharing, partially because I highly reccomend everyone head over there and read the result of that news, and partially because it’s a huge deal for a very good friend of mine: Kelly Aarons, also known as Cadistra of the Webcomic WoW, eh?, is joining the staff of WoW.com and will be working on a weekly comic just for the site!

The comic is called Byron: The Tauren Rogue, and heralds what is sure to be one of the signs of the apocalypse: ninja cows. Verify we are living in the endtimes.

I’ve mentioned Kelly several times before: in my WoW people to follow at Twitter post, again when she conceptualized what a Tauren Paladin might look like, and again when she started submitting recipes for Nourish! The Azerothian Menu. Okay, I probably mention her too much – but her art is amazing and congratulations are in order – head over and take a look!