Warren Ellis

Bookmarks for 2012-01-02

January 3rd, 2012 | brainjuice

Next Year’s Wars – By Louise Arbour | Foreign Policy
"When Foreign Policy asked the International Crisis Group to evaluate which manmade disasters could explode in the coming year, we put our heads together and came up with 10 crisis areas that warrant particular concern."
(tags:war pol )
Urbanism and the Graphic Novel: Frans Masereel’s Die Stadt (The City)
"With a quote by Walt Whitman, Belgian graphic artist Frans Masereel unveils “The City: A vision in woodcuts.” Masereel, who became known for his pacifist anarchism, achieved with this 1925 woodcut series an uncanny precursor to the modern graphic novel."
(tags:comics )

And Then I Drank Crystal Head Vodka

January 3rd, 2012 | daybook, photography, stuff2012

I got this for Xmas. It’s actually a surprisingly nice drop, with a very schnapps-y finish to it at room temperature. Probably from whatever lethal impurities lurk in the Herkimer diamond they filter it through. I intend to chill it down and extract a vodka martini from it later.

Things achieved so far this week include:

Writing a blurb for the back cover of the forthcoming reprint of Howard Chaykin’s SHADOW comics series. Writing one long and two short emails to BERG that probably made them want to kill me. Receiving one short message from Patton Oswalt that suggests he wants me to kill myself. Receiving a smoke signal from that nice Mr Whedon. And deciding I’m not going to do the GUN MACHINE revision until next week. I am bruised and convalescent. Good morning.

Post #13593

Night Music: Kristine Barrett

January 3rd, 2012 | music

Meredith Yayanos, longtime friend and editor of COILHOUSE magazine, put me on to this the other day. In her other life, Mer’s a musician, and she will be recording strings for Kristine Barrett’s new album, of which this is a preview of sorts.

Mer describes Kristine’s work as “ageless, eerie song incantations.” Which will do for me, tonight. Good night.

<a href="http://kristinebarrett.bandcamp.com/album/eulogies">Eulogies by Kristine Barrett</a>

Night Music: talkingmakesnosense (warrenellis.com)
Tomorrow’s World: The Near Future Of Pop (warrenellis.com)
Spektrmodule 03 (warrenellis.com)

Post #13591

Brubaker & Phillips’ FATALE: A Preview

January 2nd, 2012 | comics talk

Ed Brubaker was kind enough to shoot me an ARC (Advance Reading Copy) of his new comics series with illustrator Sean Phillips, FATALE, the other week. Ed was kind of freaked out when I said “this is a lot of fun.”

“You never call anything ‘fun,’” Ed said. ”Never! You hate it, right?”

Nope. It’s fun. It’s Ed and Sean mixing up crime and horror in a big tub with a bloody great bit of wood, which would be entertaining enough in its own right: but there’s deep barbs sunk in the big stick, with a sharp steel shine that promises more than you see on the surface.

I must have convinced him, because he’s given me a five-page preview of the first issue of FATALE to show you. It’s out in comics stores from this Wednesday, I believe. (Probably a day later in Britain.) Please click through to see them, and the alternative cover to issue one that for some reason cracks me up every time I see it.

(more…)

Post #13584

Bookmarks for 2012-01-02

January 2nd, 2012 | brainjuice

LRO lets you stand on the rim of Aristarchus crater
"Have you ever you looked up at the bright, cavernous Aristarchus Crater on the Moon through a telescope or binoculars and wondered what it would be like to stand on the rim and peer inside? Spectacular new views from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is almost as good as being there, and a new video lets you “rappel” down and take a closer look at the west side of the crater walls."
(tags:space )
Space mountain produces terrestrial meteorites
"When NASA's Dawn spacecraft entered orbit around giant asteroid Vesta in July, scientists fully expected the probe to reveal some surprising sights. But no one expected a 13-mile high mountain, two and a half times higher than Mount Everest, to be one of them."
(tags:space )
Should we terraform Mars?
"planetary ecosynthesis" – nice term. Also, I believe the answer is Yes.
(tags:space )
everyday structures
"Recommended reading: Alan Wiig’s “everyday structures”, a blog “explor[ing] the place of infrastructure in the urban landscape”, with a particular focus on “Hertzian space” and digital communications infrastructure"
(tags:cities )

Post #13582

REAMDE

January 2nd, 2012 | stuff2012

Someone described this as “Neal Stephenson writing as Stephen Bury.” Which, while funny, seemed unnecessarily cruel. This long run of a book has a plot gimme – a point where the author pleads, “please, just gimme this one complete bullshit suspension of disbelief if not sentience and I’ll make it worth your while, honest to god” – right in the middle of it that was to me SO blatant and desperate that I instead could not think of a fate cruel enough for him. By the end, it’s mostly forgiven, as the book is revealed as an antic take on the Clancy/Brown ‘airport thriller’ structure. Long old joke to tell, but the punchline lands. Just.

(declaration of interest: The Baroque Cycle is one of my favourite books of the century so far, and I yearn for the year when I’ll have enough free time to read it all over again. After 3000 pages, I was genuinely sad when I realised I was reaching the end of the story.)

(I finally finished this book on the 31st, but screw it: I’m calling it my first finished book of 2012. And am trying to keep a better count, this year.)

It’s not the man’s best book, and the prose in some sections feels tired. Stephenson’s place in my admiration makes me question my own reading, and wonder if he was going for the plain, character-free propulsion of a Clancy. But in others it leaps and soars, and makes me want to revisit the finely hewn prose of ANATHEM, which has gone unfinished in my house because I bought the hardback and it’s so stupidly fucking heavy that it’s actually kind of uncomfortable to handle for long periods. I wanted a book and got a literary kettle bell. In the final analysis, there’s enough jumping and swooping to make it an entertaining trip.

Post #13581