Avant-Pop, with instruments

If Bill Evans grew up in the Corn Belt watching reruns and listening to FM radio, he might have had something to add to The Bad Plus. Maybe it's a Midwestern thing, but in my book you can't beat these guys for the perfect cocktail of earnest irony (with solid musical craft). The single cover on their last album, "(Theme From) Chariots of Fire," exploded that Vangelis craptacular into a resonant manifesto of identity like Paul Harvey channeling Hamid Drake. Now, a "massively deconstructed version of Rush's 'Tom Sawyer'"? If only one could produce the literary equivalent of such nuggets of post-pop genius.



The Bad Plus Announce May 8 Release of 'PROG'

Do The Math and Heads Up International are proud to announce the release of the new record by sound-pioneering trio The Bad Plus. Entitled "PROG," the record will be released on May 8.

Neither progressive jazz nor progressive rock, "PROG" is the first record on the band's own imprint Do The Math, and it firmly keeps the band on its iconoclastic trajectory, forging a sound that defies any easy definitions or categories. "PROG" is the group's fifth studio album, following 2001's The Bad Plus (Fresh Sounds); 2003's These Are The Vistas; 2004's Grammy-nominated Give; and 2005's Suspicious Activity (all three on Columbia/Sony).

The Bad Plus hovers in a singular space between indie rock, postmodern jazz and intelligent pop. The trio's highly acclaimed albums and accompanying reputation for adventurous live performances serve as a testament to their progressive sensibilities. In less than a decade, bassist Reid Anderson, keyboardist Ethan Iverson and drummer David King have forced critics, fans and everyone in between to re-think their perceptions of jazz, rock and music in general. The "Los Angeles Times" ranks the Plus "among the potential leaders of what might be called the Nu Jazz movement - an eclectically blended, acoustically framed, dynamically powerful variation on mainstream jazz." "Rolling Stone," meanwhile, heralded them in more simple terms: "...bad to the bone, hot players with hard-rock hearts..."

"Like everything we do, this record brings together a lot of different influences, without drawing any lines around one style or another," says Anderson. "We don't create barriers. It's all brought together with a very open mind. We'll try anything, as long as it makes good music."

On the record, The Bad Plus tackle four covers: renditions of Tears For Fears' "Everybody Wants to Rule The World" and Burt Bacharach's "This Guy's In Love With You" along with massively deconstructed versions of Rush's "Tom Sawyer" and David Bowie's "Life On Mars." As is now a Plus tradition, the covers frame the band's six original compositions, including the powerful "Physical Cities," a stunning new ballad, "Giant," the final installment in their paean to athleticism, "1980 World Champion," and the intricately angular "Mint."

(As if that weren't enough, they are Bill Crider freaks on top of it)

Ron Moore named SFWA Nebula Awards® toastmaster

You heard it here first:

Ron D. Moore, head writer and executive producer of the Sci-Fi Channel series Battlestar Galactica, will serve as Toastmaster for the 2007 Nebula Awards® Banquet May 12 in New York City.

Acclaimed as “the best show on television” by Newsweek, New York Newsday and Rolling Stone, among others, Battlestar Galactica was recently renewed for a fourth season and earned a prestigious Peabody Award for outstanding achievement in television in 2006 for “A belated, brilliantly re-imagined revival of a so-so 1970s outer-space saga.” The season three episode, “Unfinished Business” by Michael Taylor, is a Nebula nominee for Best Script at this year's awards.

Prior to his involvement with Battlestar Galactica, Moore was executive producer of the acclaimed HBO series Carnivàle as well as co-executive producer of the series Star Trek: Deep Space 9 and Roswell, among others.

The 2007 Nebula Awards® Weekend will be held Friday, May 11 through Sunday, May 13 at the Marriott in the Financial Center, New York City, 85 West Street, New York, NY 10006. James Gunn will be honored as the SFWA Grand Master and David Guy Compton will be honored as Author Emeritus. Other activities will include a group autograph session, SFWA semi-annual business meeting and panel discussions related to the writing profession. Attendance is not limited SFWA members, but registration is necessary for most activities.

The Nebula Awards® are voted on, and presented by, active members of SFWA.

About SFWA
Founded in 1965 by the late Damon Knight, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America brings together the most successful and daring writers of speculative fiction throughout the world.

Since its inception, SFWA® has grown in numbers and influence until it is now widely recognized as one of the most effective non-profit writers' organizations in existence, boasting a membership of approximately 1,500 science fiction and fantasy writers as well as artists, editors and allied professionals. Each year the organization presents the prestigious Nebula Awards® for the year’s best literary and dramatic works of speculative fiction.

Bring on the cool nerds

In his introduction to Eileen Gunn's collection Stable Strategies, William Gibson, the Dr. Benway of grand masters, reflects on his yearning as a young writer for science fiction to be a next generation literary bohemia. I can relate to the search for a scene more indebted to the likes of Ballard, Burroughs and Delany than the rocket boys, and to the initial disappointment at finding it a challenge to sort out the kindred souls from the crowd at your local con's Saturday night costume show. Where are the beatniks of the fantastic? Why can't SF be the avant-garde? Where are the next generation Jonathan Lethems, the young writers who gravitate to science fiction because of the literary freedom to explore the rich, media-fueled kaleidoscope of contemporary consciousness in a way MFA program realism just does not?

Over at Writertopia, the hard-working Bill Katz has assembled a pretty good stable of just that: the virtual vitae of the hundred or so (!) writers eligible this year for the Campbell Award for best new science fiction author. A remarkable assembly of interesting people producing more interesting work, from slipstream to the hard stuff to electro-crackling avant-pop. Some I've encountered before, others are new, but they're all worth reading. Writers like:


Haddayr Copley-Woods, who spelunks the fantastic territory lurking in the interstices of domestic life like a next generation Pamela Zoline.


David Louis Edelman, whose postcyberpunk Infoquake is the imminent business thriller Richard Morgan wishes it could be.


Meghan McCarron, the suburban surrealist who sparked the Infernokrusher meme.


Kameron Hurley, with her two-fisted chick lit of the fantastic.


Lou Antonelli, East Texas (by way of Massachussetts) heir to old school penny-a-word pulp.


Marie Brennan, Harvard-trained anthropologist/folklorist putting her skills to work as a fantasist.


Justine Larbalestier, Australian master of realist magic and scholar of feminist SF.

Too many, like Sunday brunch at a fabulist smorgasbord. Eugie Foster, E. Sedia, Bill Kte'pi, Kaolin Fire, Stephanie Burgis, and even outlying oddballs like yours truly. Writertopia's portal is an all you can read buffet, complete with its own weird Muzak. If you're eligible to vote, you've got until Sarurday night to submit your nominations. If not, grab some Jello salad and marshmallows from the line and see if it doesn't taste a little different this time, bursting with cool nerd fresh art flavor.

Paean to Punctuation

Noah Lukeman wrote the First Five Pages – a Writer's Guide to Staying Out of the Rejection Pile. The title makes eyes go wide in creative writing classes. Editors and agents would reject a manuscript after reading just five pages?? Yes, they would, and here's why. It's a great book.

Last year saw the publication of Lukeman's new book A Dash of Style - The Art and Mastery of Punctuation. It takes up where Strunk and White and the Chicago Manual of Style leave off; it advises writers on the creative potential and pitfalls of punctuation.

Here's how Lukeman introduces the colon:

"The colon is the magician of the punctuation world. It holds its audience in suspense, waits until just the right moment, then voila: it pulls back the curtain to reveal the result. It sits on the very peak of drama, with all that comes before building to it, and all that follows a denouement. As such, it is one of the most effective punctuation marks to propel a word or clause into the limelight."

A Dash of Style is something of a paean to punctuation, and Lukeman makes a wonderful and helpful read of it all. Recommended.

They call me MISTER Sasquatch!

After reading Jess' magnificent connect-the-dots essay on the reality-conflating powers of Sherlock Holmes, I feel duty-bound to share the glory of Bigfoot vs. Steve Austin, via the goodness of YouTube. The episode is entitled "The Secret of Bigfoot." The secret? That the big hairy brute isn't just bionic, but that he's Andre the Giant under all that fur. Iconic, to say the least.

The Six(ty) Degrees of Sherlock Holmes

It's Sherlock Holmes' world, baby. We're just living in it

Don't believe me?

Holmes encountered Dracula in, among other things, Fred Saberhagen's The Holmes-Dracula File. Dracula encountered El Santo in Santo y Blue Demon Contra Drácula y el Hombre Lobo. And El Santo used the Time Tunnel's time machine in Santo en el Tesoro de Dracula. So Holmes exists in the same universe as Time Tunnel and El Santo.

(c'mon, you knew I'd be bringing up luchadors sooner or later here, didn't you?)

Holmes met Nat Pinkerton in a 1909 issue of a Greek dime novel. Nat Pinkerton met the fictional version of Georges Manolescu (Hungarian con man, "Prince of Thieves," and model for Thomas Mann's Felix Krull) in Neue Kriminal Bibliothek #46. The fictional Manolescu was described as the ancestor of John Kling, the German Sexton Blake. Kling met H.G. Wells' Martians in John Klings Abenteuer #498. So Holmes exists in the same universe as H.G. Wells' Martians.

Holmes worked with The Batman on the Power Records "Mystery of the Scarecrow Corpse." In the "Penguin's Nest" episode of 1960s Batman tv show The Batman, while climbing up a wall, encountered Lurch, from The Addams Family. On the "Behind the Eats" episode of Good Eats it was revealed that the disembodied hand which Alton Brown calls "Thing" is the son of Thing from the Addams Family. So Holmes exists in the same universe as Alton Brown.

Holmes met Frank Allan, perhaps the most popular German pulp character, in Frank Allan, der Rächer der Enterbten #39. Frank Allan fought with and teamed up with Captain Mors, Der Luftpirat on several occasions. Captain Mors met Alaska-Jim, secret agent for the Canadian police, in Alaska-Jim, Ein Held der Kanadischen Polizei #5. Alaska-Jim met Sun Koh, the Nazi Doc Savage, in Sun Koh, Die Erbe von Atlantis #49. So Holmes exists in the same universe as Sun Koh.

Edgar Burroughs mentions, in The Son of Tarzan, that a hotel proprietor would have consulted Holmes, had the man known of Holmes, so Holmes and Tarzan exist in the same universe. A descendant of Bukawai, a witch doctor from Burroughs' The Jungle Tales of Tarzan, attended Miskatonic University in Philip Jose Farmer's "The Freshman." Mulder and Scully visited Miskatonic University in The X-Files Annual #1. In an episode of Homicide: Life on the Street, Detective Munch arrested the Lone Gunmen from The X-Files. In an episode of Homicide, Alfre Woodward played Dr. Roxanne Turner, the same role she played on St. Elsewhere. On St. Elsewhere, Mr. Carlin, from The Bob Newhart Show, appeared as a patient. So Holmes exists in the same universe as Bob Newhart.

Holmes fought Professor Moriarty and Moriarty's lieutenant, Colonel Sebastian Moran. In Elizabeth Bear's "Tiger! Tiger!" Colonel Moran hears an incantation which uses the word"Hastur," the name of one of Lovecraft's Old Ones. Godzilla encounters the Old Ones in Marc Cerasini's Godzilla at World's End. So Holmes exists in the same universe as Godzilla.

I mentioned Holmes and Dracula. Dracula met Napoleon Solo & Illya Kuryakin in The Vampire Affair, #6 in the Man From U.N.C.L.E. novel series. Solo & Kuryakin met James Bond in The Rainbow Affair, #12 in the Man From U.N.C.L.E. novel series. Bond met Derek Flint in Our Man Flint. So Holmes exists in the same universe as Derek Flint, the coolest spy of them all.

Oh, I can keep going.

Holmes encountered Dr. Fu Manchu in, among other places, Cay Van Ash's Ten Years Beyond Baker Street. In Lin Carter's "Perchance to Dream" Carter's Dr. Anton Zarnak mentioned that the Devil Doctor was an old enemy. In James Ambuehl and Simon Bucher-Jones' "The Case of the Curiously Competent Conjuror," Zarnak telepathically communicates with Dr. Anton Phibes. So Holmes exists in the same universe as Dr. Phibes.

Holmes met Billy Bunter in Val Andrews' Sherlock Holmes and the Greyfriars Mystery. Billy Bunter sees the ghost of Dr. Syn, the Scarecrow, in The Magnet #1541. Dr. Syn met Captain Jack Sparrow in the "Enter the Scarecrow!" issue of Disney Adventure Comic Zone. So Holmes exists in the same universe as Captain Jack.

I mentioned Holmes and Fu Manchu. Fu Manchu's nemesis, Nayland Smith, had a nephew, Lancaster Sneed, who appeared in Master of Kung Fu #75, wearing the very same blazer worn by the residents of the Village, from The Prisoner. In "On the Run," the final episode of The Bionic Woman, Jamie Sommers is sent to the Village for her own good. So Holmes exists in the same universe as the Bionic Woman.

Holmes met Dracula. Dracula met Buffy in the "Buffy vs. Dracula" episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In "Bad Eggs," Buffy fought the brothers Lyle and Tector Gorch. Lyle and Tector Gorch were members of the Wild Bunch, so Holmes exists in the same universe as the Wild Bunch.

In Jeff Rice's The Night Stalker, Carl Kolchak includes, in the bibliography of his write-up of a case, Holmes' book, The Whole Art of Detection. In Mark Dawidziak's "Interview with a Vampire" Kolchack travels to Collinsport, Maine, where he meets Barnabas Collins. So Holmes exists in the same universe as Dark Shadows.

I mentioned Mulder & Scully. They met Jose Chung in the "Jose Chung's From Outer Space" episode of X-Files. Jose Chung appeared in the "Jose Chung's Doomsday Defense" episode of Millennium. Playpen magazine appeared in "Jose Chung's Doomsday Defense." As seen just last week, copies of Playpen magazine appeared on the Island in Lost. In the Lost episode "Homecoming" a character mentions that her father is "buying some paper company up in Slough," a reference to the British version of The Office. It's a given that Wernham Hogg, the paper company in The Office (U.K.), and Dunder Mifflin, the paper company in The Office (U.S.), co-exist. In the Las Vegas episode "The Story of Owe," mention is made of the Dunder Mifflin convention. In the Heroes episode "Collision," two of the characters go to the Montecito, the hotel where Las Vegas is set. So Holmes exists in the same universe as Hiro Nakamura, geek sex symbol for the 21st century.

Sooner or later, everyone's a part of the Holmesverse. (I already am, thanks to Alan Moore). All your fictional universes are belong to Holmes. He's in ur c0ntinuity, c00pting your can0n. Give in. Resistance is futile.

Late to the party

I'm something of a James Tiptree, Jr., fan. I first got ahold of some of Tiptree's stories back in my high school years, when I was voraciously reading anything and everything I could afford from the Science Fiction Book Club. My home town was too small to support a bookstore for more than a few days, and the library's science fiction and fantasy section was limited, to say the least. So when I plowed into something like "The Women Men Don't See" or "The Girl Who Was Plugged In," well, I didn't rightly know what to make of it. They certainly weren't classic Asimov or Clarke. They stayed with me, though, and eventually I learned about the whole Alice Sheldon subterfuge with her masculine alter-ego and CIA background. When I ran across her magnificent collection Her Smoke Rose Up Forever (Arkham House edition) at Adventures in Crime & Space's late, lamented brick-and-mortar location, there wasn't two seconds' worth of hesitation before I made it mine.



For all that, I don't know if I can honestly claim Tiptree as an influence on my writing with a clear conscience. I've written a grand total of one story that might tenuously be considered Tiptree-esque, and the jury's still very much out on whether that was time well spent or a failure of catastrophic proportions (at least until it's published at HelixSF a few months down the line). That's not much of a surprise, though, since our life experiences are almost entirely dissimilar. She was the pretty, only child of affluent, globe-trotting parents, making her first African safari before the age of 10. I was the adopted eldest child of an ag teacher in the middle of rural, farm-belt Texas. The closest I came to duplicating Alice Sheldon's African safaris was visiting the Lubbock prairie dog town in 1979. It wasn't until 1988 that I even ventured past the boundaries of my home state with a liquor-infused jaunt across the Rio Grande to Matamoros. That trip proved to be quite harrowing indeed--particularly when some acquaintances of mine thought it'd be fun to take an unguarded taxi for a joyride--but it doesn't quite compare.



Such are the feelings of inadequacy I'm experiencing as I read Julie Phillips' James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice Sheldon. This is the book the internet was all abuzz over six months or so back. In my defense, I've never been an early adopter. Be that as it may, the book is as engaging and lively as popular sentiment would have it. Alice Sheldon did indeed lead a life worthy of Hemmingway--moreso, even, as Papa didn't have to contend with society's gender bias and sexual restrictions as did Sheldon. There are women before and since who have faced down these artificial barriers and made a name for themselves in a "man's world"--SF author Elizabeth Moon is one who comes to mind--but that doesn't diminish the significance of what Sheldon accomplished with her life during the era she lived in. To serve honorably during World War II only to be rewarded with open hostility from the general populace (not to mention the military itself) is... well, Vietnam is a parallel that's trotted out far too often for my comfort, but it does make one question our country's collective sanity, even when we're on the sides of the angels.

It also makes me question where I get off pretending to be a writer, when I haven't lived my life to the extent of those I admire. As a member of the oddly-named Generation X, I've been thankfully spared a defining (and psyche-scarring) major war, particularly when you consider the fact that Gulf War I turned out to be somewhat less dramatic than the opening weekend of deer season. There's been nothing of the nationwide hardship and self-sacrifice that were hallmarks of armed conflict throughout most of the 20th Century. These days, we wage war with comfort of the Stateside populace first and foremost on the federal government's agenda, with tax cuts galore as the cost of the war spirals. Such quaint notions as war bonds are left to the dust bin of history as we listen to daily podcasts from Kurdistan or read the latest blogs from Baghdad. These are my generation's defining moments--is it any wonder why Xers are a cynical, disillusioned bunch?

But as I read the Tiptree bio further, I see a glimmer of hope. In 1948 Sheldon and her husband Ting bought a chicken hatchery, and for several years made their living via poultry. Well, what do you know? I raised chickens growing up. Not a lot, mind you, but I gathered my share of eggs, battled thieving snakes and kept a eye out for chicken hawks, raccoons and other predatory types. At last, I've found a connection, something to hang my hat (if not my career) on! It may be tenuous and insubstantial, but at least it's something we share.

Unless you count the name thing. Sheldon wrote under a male pseudonym, and I--even though it's my real name--write under one that implies a gender of somewhat less masculine attributes than those I am rumored to posses. As an adult, I'm able to view the gender assumptions and confusion of people who only know me by my name as a curious and interesting phenomenon. I've had readers write me after reading my fiction, discussing some "obvious" point which, to them, was based solely on the notion that I am a woman. I greet these occasional letters with great fascination, because on a very real level the gender of an author may enhance or undermine the credibility of any particular story.

In any event, being an adult male with a feminine name beats the hell out of growing up as the slow fat kid with a girl's name. I take great solace in the fact that The Bionic Woman has long since left the broadcast airwaves. I assure you, friends and neighbors, the years of 1976-1978 were not good ones for me. Is that pop culture trauma Tiptree worthy? Not in the least. But it's the best I've got, so it'll have to do.