Arts & Letters

Neil Gaiman is using blogger to keep a journal about his upcoming book, American Gods. Its an interesting look into the life of a writer (and a cool guy too:). He talks about stuff like the mechanics of copy editing, coin magic, permissions, and the best things about finishing a book. [via Follow Me Here]

The book sounds interesting too. His description:

It’s a thriller, I suppose, although as many of the thrills occur in headspace as in real life, and it’s a murder mystery; it’s a travel guide, and it’s the story of a war. It’s a history. It’s funny, although the humour is pretty dark.

I’m not too familiar with Gaiman’s work, but I’m probably going to check this book out because Neverwhere rocked my world and he seems like a great writer.

Just who is Doctor Who? Whoever he is, he still amazes me. I watched State of Decay the other day and was again enthralled (in fact, the whole E-Space Trilogy is pretty damned good; its science fiction the way it should be). And this is interesting, a Dalek is for sale!

A (not-very) short story. I’m not sure if I like it or not, but I figured I’d post it because I spent all this time reading it and because it has lots of cool mysterious and cryptic happenings set in Philadelphia. The first chapter deals with a kid who works for a Keyser Soze-like mastermind. Very eerie. The last two chapters shift focus to a medical examiner with a penchant for the works of Edgar Allan Poe. He has a run in with said mastermind. Interesting, but the ending is a bit of a letdown (its certainly not Poe).

Fans of Pink Floyd may remember a minor controversy following the release of The Division Bell. Someone with the handle “Publius” (Latin for “unknown” or “anonymous”) posted a series of cryptic messages to a Pink Floyd newsgroup. He claimed to be a messenger sent to guide Floyd fans through an ‘Enigma’ burried deep within the pictures, words and music of the album. He promised a singular reward for those who figured it out. Naturally, fans were skeptical, so Publius attempted to prove that he was somehow related to Floyd by making an appearance in the lights at a Floyd concert and in a mini-CD booklet. The Enigma was never publically solved, but a tremendous amount of speculation has led to a plethora of well researched and detailed information and theories. Whether or not its true, it makes for some interesting reading (I just love how cryptic and puzzling the original posts are). Its amazing what a bunch of stoners and a lot of time can do…

Hey, look! The media is finally brave enough to say what everyone’s been saying for a year! Should The Simpsons be cancelled? Its true, The Simpsons has shown a monumental decline in creativity and humor during the past few years. Though it still offers occasional sparks of brilliance, the quality of the shows have declined steadily. While I admit those points, theres a part of me that hopes for a fresh infusion of humor sometime soon, but that could just be another manifestation of my naive optimism. Regardless, I’ll still watch until it dies, though I hope it dies with dignity. Futurama (that show by Simpson’s creator Matt Groening) shows much promise as well… [from camworld]

The1000journalproject is an independent, privately funded social experiment. They are attempting to follow 1000 journals throughout their travels, to see where they go, who adds to them, and what happens after that. They’ve dropped them off all over the world, and its actually fascinating reading (even though not much info has trickled back to them). One of those ideas I wish I thought of…

It seems that Nine Inch Nails is having a good old fashioned garage sale on eBay. You can pick up all sorts of equipment from Nothing studios, even some crap they wanted to keep. So what’s the deal? Is Trent running out of cash? If so, the new Meathead Perspective does its part by suggesting alternative sources of income (this is worth visiting just to see the pics…) [special thanks to Meathead and The NIN Hotline]

MonkeyBagel.com is a funny site, especially for geeks and computer ilk like sysadmins. Take, for instance, this story, which is worth reading simply for his description of a Mime Assaulted With Corndog Musket (“…a short movie for you depicting a whimpering mime curled into a fetal ball, corndogs smacking wetly into his head.”). Or the wierd Mokeybagel Document (“Hey, I bought us a monkey! Let’s stick him in a bagel and then he’ll do our taxes!”). I laughed. You will too.

A fictional conversation that contains a healthy dose of reality with sprinklings of irony. After reading that you may be a bit confused. Don’t worry, everything will work out. Just Don’t Panic. This has been your Standard Deviancy, brought to you by the wonderful Captain Busternaut.

Doc Ezra goes off on the increasingly common butchery and misuse of his beloved mother tongue. If you cringe when you hear words like proactive or envisioneer, this article is for you.

I’ll be away from Friday until Monday, so Kaedrin could be frightfully inactive this weekend. I say “could be” because you could change that. Yes, YOU. You could go add a chapter to one of the active Tandem Stories, or check out the ever fascinating Kaedrin Forum, where you can sympathize with my horrid Boston Public experience or just chat with the regulars (they don’t bite… hard).