• The closer you look at an original William Blake, the more blisteringly crazy he gets. #

• Disturbingly, have rediscovered a taste for Manhattans. I blame my daughter (who orders Safe Sex On The Beach in cocktail bars). #

• Ah, Sauternes, my old enemy. We meet again. #

The excellent short fiction of Gareth Powell, collected for the first time, from Elastic Press. I wrote a back cover blurb for this: "Just the way sf should work."

’

• goodnight twitter schweinhunden, sleep tight, don’t let the mutant bloodvore pubic spiders your sexual partner left in the bed bite #
• I collect stars, but I keep them in the sky because I just don’t have the space at home. #
• Ed Brubaker is now on Twitter as @brubaker . You are specifically directed to terrify and sicken him. DROWN HIM IN BRAIN CUSTARD #

• ‘Laser jumbo’ testing moves ahead
  A US military plane equipped with a powerful laser has moved a step closer to becoming a viable weapon
  (tags:war tech )

The first t-shirt by Zoetica Ebb with Plastik Wrap, available now at Etsy:

• i just wrote 12 pages of FREAKANGELS in a single 3 hour sitting and now i would kind of like to die thank you #
• FREAKANGELS 24 - the end of Book One. http://www.freakangels.com/?p=50 #
• Okay, who wants to carry me home from the pub? Because I don’t think I have enough strength for this “walking” shit. #

And five minutes after I put up the post two entries down, Ariana put the covers for the softcover and hardcover editions of FREAKANGELS 1 up. So, in that order, here they are in all their glory:

• druunatic.dk
  My Danish pervert friend Druuna finally gets a store of her photographic work up.
  (tags:photography )

The end of Book One.

Book One will be released as a nice cleaned-up print edition from Avatar Press in time for Xmas, in three flavours: hardback, paperback, and, as seen below, the special limited signed edition.

Next week, Book Two starts.

• Absolutely pissing down out here. Abandoning the pub. Fashioning ark. #
• Okay. Obviously, nothing less than human adrenochrome is going to fully awaken me today. Give up your adrenal glands to me. My need is MOAR #
• This just in: Ben @templesmith uses moisturisers daily, wears dresses #

• Lady Genius - San Francisco, California - Indie - www.myspace.com/ladygeniusmusic
  The EP ain't bad at all. Particularly amused by their "Christmas Song."
  (tags:music )
• KoldCast.tv - IT’S ON!
  A new internet.tv site.
  (tags:webtv )

Yoda’s House, as featured on a couple of 4am broadcasts, have released their first album into the wild as a free download. I’ve described them before as "a sort of thumping, organic postrock," heavily rhythmic, sprawling and explorative but never losing the plot. Everything they do sounds like a soundtrack for the end of the world to me. I love them.

Also, their pieces have titles like DER ROBOTERGEIST.

• oooOOOoooEEEeeeooOOO it’s meeee EEEEeeeooooOOOOoooeeeEEE #
• I swear, it’s actually trying to snow out here. Condition: HOT HAIL AAAAA NO MISTER MING DONT DO IT #
• @sispurrier jogging destroys the creative will. #
• I want a tattoo over my heart that reads TRY HARDER YOU LAZY PARAMEDIC SHITBAG OR I WILL HAUNT YOUR BEDROOM FOREVER #

• Userplane.com - Boards
  new messageboard system
  (tags:web )

BAD SIGNAL

* The Cure are doing an interesting marketing thing. "Their brand
new studio album will be released worldwide on 13th September,
with 4 consecutive, different single releases preceding the album
on the 13th of each month: 13th May, 13th June, 13th July and
13th August."

• @Gustavius you are a simpleton. Stab yourself in the balls with a can-opener immediately, and count yourself lucky you got off light. #
• good morning human maggots give us a kiss #
• People are actually complaining because Twitter will “only” let you follow 2000 people? What’s the point of following 2000 people? #
• …of course, now I’m wondering if there are people I should be following who I’m not following. (Also, JJ? I love you but you’re nuts.) #
• @moonandserpent well, yeah. I’ve always kept my list down to friends, fellow-travellers and other scum. #
• @mrtonylee you just wrote a comic called MILF MAGNET. I don’t want people to get the impression that I know you. #
• I’m SO glad you got a Twitter account, @mollycrabapple … #
• Condition: Brain Custard #
• @foxtongue MONKEY flavour #
• Loving this clip from Frank Miller’s new comedy softcore movie THE SPIRIT: http://tinyurl.com/5e2dy3 #
• Later on, Sarah Paulson, as sweet innocent Ellen Dolan, sucks off a donkey called WHORE that has been dressed as a leather nun. #

• Extinction ‘by man not climate’
  Large prehistoric animals in Tasmania may have been wiped out by human hunting and not temperature changes
  (tags: history eco)
• Skinner to release one more album
  "I did a five-album deal and I don't think it would be right to be making Streets albums after that." (Stopping after the first one wouldn't have been so bad, either)
  (tags: music)

But what the hell. A guy called Robert writes to say:

My girlfriend, Becky, recently gave birth to my one-and-only
daughter on August 2nd. Her pregnancy was blissful, for all of the first
three weeks. After that, she was dealing with hyper-emesis (much puking,
not able to eat, had an intravenous Pikline installed), gestational
diabetes (hard to exercise when you’re hooked up to a Pikline, and not
eating…) and then she had chest pains. Which she went into the ER for,
a few days before the 2nd.

She had a pulmonary embolism. The words the staff used were that
she was VERY lucky she came in when she did. Lydia Grace was born at
11:27pm on the 2nd. She weighed 8.5#, and measured nearly 19".
Thankfully, as hellacious as Becky’s pregnancy was, Lydia is as beautiful
and healthy as we could hope.

Now the small/LARGE favour: I would love it if you could post the
picture of Lydia on your site, as a delightful surprise for Becky, who
could use some perking up. She’s been a real trooper, and I know she’d
get a huge kick out of it.

Lydia’s a good name. Welcome to Earth, little darling.

• I am a wonderful human being with the aura of a sun and the testicular fortitude of a young tyrannosaur. Sometimes you must be reminded. #
• Sorry. Should quit forcing these ideas & images into your head. A stinking, brownish rain of memetic semen in the folds of your naked brain #
• for fuck’s sake @zdarsky — bacon is NOT “God’s Scabs.” You, however, are Satan’s fermented placenta #
• Oh, I think it’s time for a beer. What do you think? Beer? #
• Public Service Announcement: yes, Gmail is having server-wide issues, it’s not just you. #

On my internet shithole today:

* The band Double Helix are offering their debut album free to Whitechapel.

* Thrown up an Events thread for people looking to advise an internet cave full of freaks about their upcoming gigs, exhibitions, tours, shows, classes, talks, extended drinking sessions, crackhouses, whatever.

* Whitechapel has an active community of artists who share their pieces, works in progress etc.

* How do you define journalism?

* Was anyone here at the COILHOUSE launch party?

* The latest on Anonymous vs Scientology.

* "Magick For Dummies."

And, you know… other stuff.

• Isaac Hayes: Xenu awaits. #

• I would really rather be in Los Angeles today. And you won’t hear me say THAT often. #
• It’s the COILHOUSE launch party in LA tonight, you fools: http://tinyurl.com/5os9kg #
• @shinalucard13 - last time I went anywhere near Phoenix, there was a bizarre storm that flooded the area. I considered this a subtle hint. #
• @zdarsky keep your internet VD away from my friends. I know where you’ve been. #
• @theremina the last thing you have to worry about is thereministrating. Remember impromptu theremin solo in Camden Town? #
• @theremina okay, pretend it’s Camden Town and I’m getting you drunk again. #

• @spiraltwist when a child hugs you and says they love you, you say “I love you too.” Don’t cost a thing, and sometimes it goes a long way. #
• Because being a child can be weird and scary, & sometimes loving and being loved is all that makes sense to them, & not all of them get it. #
• And now I return you to your regularly scheduled programming: how to turn kittens into cocksocks! #
• All you need is love (and metal darts): FREAKANGELS 23 - http://www.freakangels.com/?p=49 #

I guess word got around when I dropped a mention into Bad Signal yesterday, so I may as well reprint it here:

Oh, I got released from an NDA the other day, so I can finally say that I wrote a bunch of the groundwork, backstory and structure on the forthcoming EA videogame DEAD SPACE, which recently got a comic prequel from the hands of Antony Johnston and Ben Templesmith. I believe there was at least one other writer on the project, but I’m sure there’s some of me in there somewhere.

The EA team were a lot of fun to work with. I wrote all my DEAD SPACE documents…god, a long time ago, I don’t even remember… 18 months back? Two years? A long time ago. Game-making is a slow old business.

This is the third game I’ve been employed as writer on: the others were HOSTILE WATERS (known in the US as ANTAEUS RISING, I believe) and COLD WINTER.