The Pefect Storm...

No, not that reasonably good sea story or slightly less good Clooney vehicle. A *REAL* perfect storm. Two of my favorite humans on earth, Ze Frank and Jonathan Coulton are together on a recent episode of Ze's exceptional vlog The Show.

Ze is, in my not remotely humble opinion, one of the sharpest, funniest and most creative forces currently wandering the planet. Jonathan is among the darkest, wittiest and most wonderfully twisted singer/songwriters the software coding world has ever produced [we played Skullcrusher Mountain and Mandelbrot Set at our wedding reception].

I'm going back to bed. This day can not get better...

Happy Birthday Amy Tan

Amy Tan was born today (1952). In addition to writing a book or two, and appearing on the Simpsons with an unusual (and unrelated) skin tone, she occasionally sings lead vocals in The Rock Bottom Remainders (with bandmates such as Stephen King, Dave Barry, Barbara Kingsolver, Scott Turow, Frank McCourt, etc). Here she sings, not Happy Birthday, but Lead of the Pack. Happy birthday Amy...ROCK ON! [Thanks to Today in Literature for the link.]

Apropos of nothing, ballroom dancing to Nirvana

Ok, so I am innocently sitting cataloguing books this evening with MPBN's, America’s Ballroom Challenge, on in the background being ignored. Strangely, I heard the beginning of Nirvana's, Smell's Like Teen Spirit and looked up...not unreasonably surprised. The couple, sadly I have no idea who they were, proceeded to do what I can only describe as the "coolest" ballroom routine I have ever seen on a ballroom floor (admittedly, I don't follow it at all). It was wonderfully creative and just a riot to watch. If it appears, I'll post the YouTube. I'm very disappointed I didn't capture it.

And now for a non-book, totally tech moment...

Well, MacWorld was today and Apple announced several new products...but only one really matters to me. I want an iPhone (go here for a great review and MANY pictures). I want it NOW. I want to sleep with it under my pillow. I want to rub it, ever so softly, against my cheek. I want to gaze lovingly at it. I long for it. I covet it. I crave it.

I love Apple for many reasons. I love them most of all for occasionally bringing something to market that genuinely makes me covet a bit of hardware. It is, as one would expect, a stunningly beautiful, simple and elegant device. I can not wait to explore the UI. I can not wait to have a phone that has built in WiFi, so I can get my email/web access *without* paying for the overpriced data service from my carrier. I can not wait.

Oh, and there is a new settop box, AppleTV that looks really slick and several other new/improved toys.....but, oh my, have you seen the iPhone *wistful sigh*. It will be shipping in June. That gives me 5 and a half months or so to really loathe my current phone...all its inadequacies...its poor design (both aesthetic and UI). It's lack of a 4 (or 8)gig drive. It is going to be a long few months.

Little Rare Book Room: A quick song for your post-holiday/bibliophilic pleasure

A personal favorite of mine from my recently chatted about Scary Solstice collection, please enjoy "Little Rare Book Room" (Lyrics by Sean Branney and Andrew Leman, based on 'Little Drummer Boy,' written in 1958 by Katherine Davis, Henry Onorati, and Harry Simeone):

Come, they called me
The special book room
The rarest books to see
Librarian's tomb
Kept under lock and key
In terrible gloom
To save man's sanity,
It's pointless, we're doomed, thoroughly doomed, utterly doomed.
Necronomicon
The first I exhumed
From the book room.

Book of Eibon
So frightfully old
Vermis Mysteriis
A sight to behold
The Monstres and Their Kynde
With edges of gold
Could make me lose my mind
All covered with mold, fungus and mold, poisonous mold.
Kitab al Azif
Its horrors untold.
Still I am bold.

King in Yellow
Left me feeling glum
The Ponape Scriptures
I'd stay away from
And then The Golden Bough
My brain had gone numb
I read them all out loud
Well that was quite dumb, terribly dumb, fatally dumb.
Freed the Great Old Ones
Mankind will succumb.
What have I done?

For better or worse, I have listened to this so much over the last few days that I can not sing it all from memory...and have been...over and over and over.

Chaos reigns...or creeps...for the last week or so

Sorry for the delay in posts...several in the pipeline but things have been insane. The holiday was great fun. My boys and my new nephew (happily at the "eat, sleep, wail" stage of existence) where highly entertaining. People ate WAY too much (xmas eve dinner was our "traditional" lobster dinner (I love living in Maine) and xmas dinner was an even more traditional roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, et al, event) and great fun was had by all.

My family has a long-standing tradition to over-indulge the whims and fancies of all involved at pretty much all gift giving holidays (and there are MANY, if you take the right approach (Bloomsday, for example)). This year was heavy on Cthulhu and friends. I received a wonderful gift from a client, a copy of Baby's First Mythos by C.J. and Erica Henderson...he had the Henderson's inscribe it and include and *wonderful* color sketch of Cthulhu draped over a cityscape and thinking, "Hmmmmm, city" (think, "hmmmmmm, chocolate"). Everyone should have clients who get them wonderful books.

I also received two pairs of bookish gargoyles from my wonderfully crazed father. Mom did her part, too. She discovered the wonders of the H.P. Lovecraft Society. As a result I found, lurking under the tree, the CD, DVD *and* script for A Shoggoth on the Roof (a slight adaptation of Fiddler on the Roof). Even better (and more in keeping with the holiday) was the exceptional "Unbearably Scary Solstice" collection...this included A Very Scary Solstice and An Even Scarier Solstice, complete with song books and all contained in a handmade "tentacle" stocking. I can not recommend these albums highly enough. Lyrics to some will likely follow. Finally, a great t-shirt with Cthulhu reading a book (undoubtedly the Necronomicon) with "Bibliophile" beneath.

I, of course, need about 3-4 days to recover from this "holiday". Sad...so very sad.

Holiday gifts ideas that are...er...inspired...

Mark Morford, of SF Gate fame, is at it again with his:

world-famous, wonderfully sporadic, semi-annual non-intuitive completely biased guide to gifts for the juicy and the weird and the delightful and the damned. Warning: Contains references to iPods. And sex. Sometimes in the same item.

There are some great ideas...my personal is probably "They Call Me Naughty Lola: Personal Ads from the London Review of Books" (e.g. "I am the literary event of 2007, or at the very least the most entertaining drunk on my ward. Please visit (Mon-Thurs, 5-7 p.m., bring chocolate, and gin). F, 41. Box no. 4365."). I have several copies for friends and family.

From the, "oh my god, I can't wait to see my sister and her husband open THAT in front of my parents" catagory: The iBuzz. It is the "world's first music-activated sex toy for couples". It has two headphone jacks so you and your love can share the...er...experience, as it were. See video below. I will try to get a picture that includes my sister's and both parents faces in one shot. I am the best older brother a girl could ever want.

Mark has a number of other great ideas. He gives a good plug to Think Geek, the *best* one stop shop for the geek in your life. Also, if you like giving things that grow (and eat), Carnivorous Creations Grow Dome allows you to grow a wee garden of 7 different flesh eating plants. Nothing says Happy Holidays like carnivorous plants (N.B. They have a number of other very cool plant kits...poke about).

For the bookishly inclined, I've posted a short catalogue of fine press and fine binding items that cover pretty much any interest and budget. Have fun.

The following is a promo video for the iBuzz. I'm sorry...I really am...but it is the funniest thing I have seen in years.

First of May and Skullcrusher Island

WARNING: not suitable for office play (don't say I didn't warn you).

I have talked about Jonathan Coulton before, he is a Yale alum, coder of complex databases and generally brilliant and charming man about town. He is also an absolutely wonderful, if slightly off kilter, singer/songwriter. Do not miss Mandelbrot Set (free download at the link above...or pretty much any other.

Mike Booth, famous in some circles (all right, small, strange circles) for making videos using the World of Warcraft graphics engine, has made two videos of two of Jonathan's songs, First of May and Skullcrusher Mountain (which played at my wedding reception). I hope you enjoy them as much as I did. [N.B. I'll admit the bookish connection is thin, but I've read the plot of Skullcrusher Mountain in several books...and First of May, for that matter...see, it all works.]