Happy New Year, Everyone!!!

A moment in remembrance of those we lost in 2009:

Captain Lou Albano, Bea Arthur, J.G. Ballard, Bob Bogle, Charles N. Brown, David Carradine, Jim Carroll, Walter Cronkite, Robert Degen, Dom DeLuise, Roy E. Disney, Dominick Dunne, David Eddings, Philip José Farmer, Farrah Fawcett, Mark "The Bird" Fidrych, Bernie Fuchs, Andy Hallett, Lyn Hamilton, Tim Hart, Pat Hingle, Robert Holdstock, John Hughes, Michael Jackson, Stuart Kaminsky, Jack Kemp, Ted Kennedy, Shek Kin, Judith Krug, David Levine, Sal Malanga, Karl Malden, Kim Manners, John Scott Martin, Bob May, Billy Mays, Frank McCourt, Patrick McGoohan, Ed McMahon, Steve McNair, Vic Mizzy, Ricardo Montalban, Sir John Mortimer, Brittany Murphy, Dan O'Bannon, Mark Owings, Les Paul, William Safire, Soupy Sales, Ron Silver, Mollie Sugden, Crystal Lee Sutton, Patrick Swayze, Fred Travalena, Mary Travers, George Tuska, John Updike, Edward Woodward, and Andrew Wyeth.

Rest in peace, good folk. *raises glass*

Mark Owings, a bibliographer, fan, and fixture of east coast fandom, has lost his battle with pancreatic cancer at the age of 64.

Feh.

*raises glass*

I've been too busy running around NYC to do much reading or to make a proper recs post, but I've bookmarked a few of my favorite stories at my AOOO page. As always, I'm kind of boggle by the variety of great fic that Yuletide produces every year. I suspect that I'll be reading for weeks to come.

I was going to do a lengthy, rambling year-end musing post, but the long drive I'm part of today just got longer with the discovery upon awakening this morning that there's snow and ice on the ground.

So I will say this: 2009 has been a roller coaster year, filled with tremendous highs and miserable lows.

But for right now, I'm going to focus on three particular highs: I won a Lifetime Achievement Award, got roasted, and achieved my black belt. And those were all pretty damned cool.

2010 is a teeming mass of uncertainty for me right now, as terri_osborne is moving out, and both of us are finally moving on with our lives, and my career is at an odd crossroads thanks to the shite economy. Plus I'll be exploring my karate in a new way as a black belt.

Gonna be interesting, that's for sure.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!

Tim Hart, founding member of Steeleye Span, has lost his battle with lung cancer at the too-damn-young age of 61.

A great one has been lost. *raises glass*

Yesterday, I revised "Fire in the Hole," the Dragon Precinct story I've written for the Dragon's Lure anthology and sent it off to damcphail in the hopes that she likes it enough to actually, y'know, include it in the anthology. (Assuming she does, it'll be out from Dark Quest Books in May, with the formal release at Balticon.)

I also looked over the lettering for Farscape: D'Argo's Quest #2 and got and incorporated Rockne O'Bannon's notes on Farscape #7.

Today, I began Chapter 2 of the urban fantasy, writing 2100 words of the thing all told.

(I have also been introduced to the joys of the British TV series Hustle, and also finally got 'round to watching Doctor Who's "The End of Time Part 1." I'm going to wait until Part 2 before writing up anything formal about the latter, as I've been burned by RTD's season-ending two-parters far far far far far too often to even consider posting any thoughts on the commencement until I've seen the denouement.)

I'm now going to watch Fanboys, a movie I've been dying to see since I saw the trailer over a year ago, and finally bought on DVD a few months ago, but still haven't gotten around to watching. Cha cha cha.

Caricaturist David Levine has died at the age of 83 from prostate cancer.

I've always loved his work. He will be missed....

So, yesterday The Boy and I braved the wind and the cold to come into the city again, where we had lunch with the lovely counteragent and then saw Sherlock Holmes. Short version: we both enjoyed it muchly. ( Longer, spoilier version: )

Robert Brockway at Cracked.com presents the five reasons why Die Hard is a great Christmas movie in comparison to others.

My favorite is #2. *grin*

Thanks to liamstliam for the funny....

Well, major enough. *grin*

TrekMovie did their best books and comics of the year, and they selected Alien Spotlight: Klingons by myself and JK Woodward as Best Single Issue of a comic book.

I am deeply honored. Thanks to TrekMovie. (Other choices included Dave Galanter's Troublesome Minds for Best Novel, Countdown by Tim Jones, Mike Johnson, & David Messina (with some no-name dudes called Orci & Kurtzman providing the story) for Best Comic Book Series, and much more.

So I was considering going to World Fantasy this year -- I'm trying to sell some original fantasy novels, and it would probably be a good place for me to get back to. I haven't actually been to WFC since 2003. Plus, I have some friends in the Columbus area that it'd be good to see.

But the "online registration" involves printing out a PDF and mailing it in -- and it has to be a check drawn on a U.S. bank.

What is this, 1998? There's no actual online registration. Allegedly (and this is secondhand) the con chair thinks that only "coastal elites" want online registration. Never mind the fact that WFC is 90% pros in the industry, and a good chunk of them (including all the big publishers and agents and editors) are on one of the coasts, why would you deliberately make it difficult for people to register for your convention?

Oh, and the site hasn't been updated since May. This is not encouraging.

WFC is a huge expense, and this is already screaming "not worth the agita." Sheesh.

(Thanks to suricattus for the heads-up....)

Wow, we walked a lot yesterday. First, several hours in the Museum of Natural History. Then across the Park, then down to Rockefeller Center, and Times Square, and finally back to Penn Station. Whew! Rockefeller center was so crowded, I think it took us longer to walk one block than most of the way across Central Park. I wanted to show The Boy the windows at Saks, but it looked as if we'd end up standing on line for an hour. I think we'll try again after the New Year.

Gonna give my feet a break today before we go into the city again tomorrow.

Have barely had any time to read Yuletide yet, let alone post any recs. Have been leaving and saving stories to my delicious.com bookmarks, but I suspect by the time I get around to reccing, the whole thing will be long over. There's a lot fabulous stuff being posted, though.

Went with the family to see Sherlock Holmes and enjoyed the heck out of it. For starters, it was incredibly faithful to Conan Doyle -- far more so than anyone this side of the Jeremy Brett adaptations. Downey is also the second-best Holmes I've seen (after Brett).

( More behind the cut, with spoilers...... )

Anyhow, fun movie. Go see it!

A scale model of Minas Tirith during the Battle of Pellenor Fields from The Lord of the Rings, made entirely with candy!

"Behold, the White City of Minas Tirith is under siege by one of the largest, and certainly the tastiest army ever to walk Middle Earth."

Hee!

As Season 0 of the audio drama HG World barrels to a conclusion, 3015 North Studios is presenting the final three parts of the season in the final three weeks of the year, starting a fortnight ago with the fifth episode, "All the Greenery is Comin' Down, Boy." The sixth episode, "And Shadows Still Remain," went live a week ago, with the season finale, "It's a World of Dread and Fear," hitting today. (Then, of course, Season 1 starts in 2010......)

***THIS EPISODE CONTAINS SCENES OF INTENSE VIOLENCE THAT MAY BE DISTRESSING TO SOME LISTENERS. LISTENER-DISCRETION IS ADVISED.***

Seasons change as we look in on the people of HG World, the First Church of Wishwell and the United Nations Necroambulate Disposal Detail. A stand off between the UN and Happy Valley Militia is interrupted by the arrival of a common enemy. Tensions between the constables of HG World come to a head. Ronni finally learns the fate of her family. Members of the church begin to break down as Pastor Dawkins tries to keep them calm and organized in preparation for a long, cold winter.

Starring:
Frank Bedene as DAD
Mark Zaricor as DAWKINS
Jules Ismail as DIRK and KIRK
Lee Sands as DOGBERRY
Tracy Hall as DOREEN
Steve Cox as FISHER
Michael L. Stokes as GRANT
Audio Élan as Mrs. GREEN
Ryan Smith as HICKS
Glenn Bartram as HUGH
D.T. Kelly as JEB
Lance Shonberg as KRANTZ
Shane Harris as MAYOR
Ayoub Khote as McINNES
Dedrick Jensen-Woodard as OHLSON
Becca Rinas as RONNI
Gwendolyn Jensen-Woodard as JO
Kimberly Gianopoulos as SGT. WAKE
Ron Runeborg as YING
Eric Avedissian as THOMAS
and
Keith R.A. DeCandido as TODD RAGE

The episode was written and directed by Jay Smith. Edited and engineered by Michael L. Stokes. HG World is produced by Jay Smith & Michael L. Stokes with production assistance by Martha Linbo-Terhaar and Carole Stokes. Production logo and additional art by Adrianna Linbo-Terhaar.

This show was edited with Reaper Audio Editor with some Sound Effects from Freesound. For a full list of Freesound contributors, please visit us at GoodMorningSurvivors.com.

Jonathan Coulton appears courtesy of the Creative Commons License. Visit JonathanCoulton.com for music downloads and concert information.

Music Credits:
"One of Them" - Kevin MacLeod
"Cowboy Whiskey" by FreeSoundtrackMusic.com
"Long Note One" - Kevin MacLeod
"Trio for Piano, Cello, and Clarinet" - Kevin MacLeod
"Stages of Grief" - Kevin MacLeod

The episode is also available for download on iTunes.

Went to see the new Terry Gilliam film, and also Heath Ledger's last film, this evening. It was an absolute delight.

I have to admit to knowing nothing about the film going in -- only that Ledger's role was "finished" by Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell -- and figured it was a 19th-century story about a scientist.

Boy, was I wrong. But there's a lot of 19th-century stuff in there. It's a magnificent piece, the use of other actors playing Ledger's role works beautifully, and it's the usual Terry Gilliam amazingness, with lots of torn rags hanging off things like he always has.

Christopher Plummer, Ledger, and Ledger's stand-ins are all very good. Lily Cole is radiant as Valentina. But the show is stolen by Verne Troyer as Percy and Tom Waits as Mr. Nick (the devil, truly).

The movie is an absolute delight, a visual feast, and pretty much the usual story as to what happens when you make a deal with the devil. It's not Gilliam's best, and you can tell he's trying to hit notes he's hit more successfully in other films (as an example, there's a lot of Baron Munchausen in Plummer's Parnassus, but John Neville made it work a bit better than Plummer).

Right now, it's only playing in NYC and LA, probably in the hopes of some Oscar nods. Waits and Troyer deserve them, but won't get them, in all likelihood.....