This whole house concert tour thing is exciting! I have two confirmed dates to tell you about now, yay!

• NOVEMBER 11th, 2011 (11/11/11): House concert at Sidhehaven. I’ve heard a lot about this place an I’m honoured they’ve decided to host me for my first announced house concert! They’re outside Yelm, about half an hour south of Tacoma, Washington by car. Doors open at 6pm; showtime’s at 7. RSVP on evite, and/or check in on Facebook – tho’ if you don’t and decide to come anyway that’s cool. But RSVP if you can! $5-10 suggested donation.

• NOVEMBER 18, 2011: Peter Lovejoy is hosting me out on Bainbridge Island, at 8959 Battle Point Drive NE. I’ve never played anywhere out there before, so this is a first! Doors open 6pm, show starts 7pm, $7 Suggested Donation. There’s no RSVP page for this one but I’d love to know if you’re coming!

There may be some more news to come. I hope so, anyway! Thanks so much to Sidhehaven and to Peter for letting me come play for their friends – I’m so looking forward to it!

We Have Movie Sign!

Back to our horrorfest! There are three questions this time: your favourite Hammer Films horror classic, your favourite Carpenter film from his golden era (other than The Thing, already in polls earlier), and your favourite recent horror flick, from any source. We’ve seeded that poll with some of our faves.

As usual, if an answer you want isn’t in here, comment with the film you want, and I’ll add it!

AND NOW, I ASK YOU…

[poll id=”15″]

[poll id=”16″]

[poll id=”17″]

Next week, we’ll put all of the winners of all five polls up against the original Universal classics and crown our EMPEROR OF HORROR! Let the creepiest thing win!

G’morning! There are a bunch of things I can’t talk about yet that I really want to. But I can’t. Some of them are pretty undefined and really not even definitely happening yet, some are definitely happening but there’s one more thing to sort out.

Not that you heard it from me, but relevant dates are probably in the vicinity of 29 October, 11 November, and 18 November. Probably.

But there are things I can talk about!

First, Steamcon says hi!

Not Hardly Everybody

I’ve never been before, so one-dayed it on Saturday. I… mostly don’t have the rhythm of this convention. I enjoyed the sensory immersion in retro cosplay, I even bought a few things in the dealer’s room – tho’ most of that was tea. And any fandom which supports a loose-leaf tea vendor has my approval.

But not being so heavily into steampunk cosplay – which seemed to be cosplay based on fashions anywhere between 1720s and the early 1930s, as far as I could tell, tho’ most of it was Victoriana – I felt rather at loose ends. Also, with a couple of exceptions, it seemed way more “steam” than “punk;” as Torrey mentioned, almost all of the costuming is ruling or merchant class, and there’s not much punk in that.

Which isn’t to say the standards weren’t very high – I have too many photos to post here, and didn’t take a fraction of the number I could’ve! But enjoy a few random photos:

A Sharky Constitutional

Putting the Punk Back in Steampunk

Sin By Me

Supervillainy!
Also, I do not know what era this was, but I would like to visit it

Attoparsec was there, showing off their new their latest invention, the hydrocrystalophone:

A New Musical Instrument

I also spotted a lovely hat which contained a gazing sphere showing an animation of a galloping horse, but sadly did not get a photo! I was hoping for more such gadgetry – that, I really enjoy – but if there, I largely missed it. That said, I do believe I spotted a spy:

Not Stealthy

I spent most of the evening at Second Stage, getting to enjoy shows by Toy-Box Trio, Fein and Dandee, Aeon Now!, and Curtis Eller. All put on good shows, but I was really impressed in particular by Aeon Now!, and if you get a chance to see them, you’d be insane not to take it. Complex lyrics, strong vocals, good arrangements, and the craziest drummer I’ve ever seen perform live means they blew the roof off of that place.

Shooting in the dark is difficult when you have dynamic performers, but I got a couple of decent shots:

Toy-Box Trio

Fein and Dandee, neo-Vaudvillian musicians

Aeon Now

I’ll post more photos to Flickr, later, after I have time to sort them properly.

In other news, Moog has released an iPad polysynth, and for the first month, they’re basically giving it away at 99¢. Demonstration video here; it goes up to $30 in a month. Grab it now if you’re interested!

That’s all I have for the moment. I’m really excited about things I can’t talk about. Frustrating! But in a good way. Keep watching for updates!

I didn’t really say in the first post; the idea with these horror film polls is that we’ve got two going now, two more next week, then the last week of October, we’ll take all the winners and put them up against the Universal classics to have our CHAMPION OF HORRORS! October is a pretty big horror film month around the Lair, and some of our favourites are going to be showing up in these polls, and I wonder how much of that will be shared.

So if you’re into these films, go clickie, and let’s see what comes out on top.

Apparently the Thing prequel isn’t getting much love in reviews – the Rotten Tomatoes score is a fairly sad 30%, even if the audience reaction is much better. I’m a little surprised by that, honestly; I’m particularly perplexed by one reviewer’s comment that it was dull. While it has its flaws, it wastes no time getting things moving and keeps up a pretty solid pace throughout.

I did want to talk about the film a little more, though, mostly about two topics.

First, there’s a fanon for the whole series – everything except the novella, really – that the Thing itself isn’t actually the alien that built the spaceship, but is what brought the spaceship down.

That ties in for me particularly strongly with this prequel, and I’m wondering whether that’s intentional. It’s always bothered me that the Thing is really kind of stupid – and it’s significantly worse in this version. I have an extension of the fanon that the Thing is not entirely intelligent; that it can use the intelligence of the beings it operates, but doesn’t really integrate that intelligence well into its own being. It’s sort of a puppeteer, rather than an integrator.

That works very well in this film, and well in Carpenter’s, and to a lesser degree, works in the novella. It fits less well with the 1951 vaguely carrot-monster-ish version, but, well, it’s a modern fanon.

not this carrot monster

For another take on that intelligence question entirely, however, you will certainly enjoy Peter Watts’ short story, The Things, which takes rather the opposite approach and is just a lovely piece of creepy, creepy work.

Secondly, and on the plus side, I’m really happy that we finally have an entry in this mythos that passes the Bechdel Test. Kate Lloyd is functionally the Ellen Ripley of this film, albeit one coming from a different emotional starting point. My take on this was that this is entirely intentional; and for me, it’s the most overdue update to the entire concept.

all out of bubblegum

Much of the rest, I touched upon already; reasonable characters, an interesting reshading and invocation of the original; I liked that a lot of the dialogue was in Norwegian, and wish it’d been a bit more than it was, but with three American characters and an American audience, that’s kind of unavoidable.

Keep an eye on the shows page, I have some show announcements coming up soon! A couple of dates are already pencilled in; one’s even in ink, but I’m waiting for a couple more pieces of mail before I get completely specific.

I’ve never done a house concert before! It’s new! and exciting! I’m still looking for opportunities to the north (Lower Mainland in particular), and Portland, which should tell you something about where my pencil marks are at this point. XD

Have a good weekend, everybody!

First! The winners of our last poll: in Cascadia, blackberry is the leader of our four horseplants of the botanical apocalypse; outside Cascadia, in North America at large, kudzu is our winner.

And based on total votes, let’s hear it our all-star continental dream team of planty death: blackberry, horsetail, kudzu, and English ivy! Well strangled, all around.

Let’s all just hope there’s never zombie virus variant for plants, shall we?

It’s October! And I literally 20 minutes ago returned from a preview showing of The Thing, the prequel to the 1982 John Carpenter film The Thing, which is, in turn, a remake of the 1951 The Thing from Another World, based on John Campbell’s rather excellent 1938 novella, “Who Goes There?”

It’s getting pretty damn meta at this point, because this film covers the events in the Norwegian research base, and we see the end of those events at the start of the 1982 movie, and earlier moments from it through the 1982 film, and all of those were in that movie because the ’82 film used footage from the ’51 film to show events from that base!

Also, the pronouns are getting a mite tricky.

All in all, they did a pretty good job of capturing the atmosphere of Carpenter’s take, and not just in set design. They made one pretty significant change to the events seen or implied in the ’82 film, and from a film standpoint, I can see why you’d do that, tho’ I’m still not convinced it’s necessary. A good skiffy horror romp; not groundbreaking, but fun.

But that brings us to this week’s poll! It’s October, Halloween month, so we’re going to have a series of horror polls! Since we’re starting the month off with a skiffy horror flick, we’ll start with a skiffy horror poll – a roll call of skiffy horrors so terrible, so rampant, so utterly indescribable, that they can only be known by their pronouns! Or, in some cases, their indefinite nouns.

As usual, if an answer you want isn’t available, comment, I’ll add it, and you can come back and vote for it.

EVERYONE! PICK YOUR TERRORS!

[poll id=”13″]

[poll id=”14″]

Normally I don’t post on Tuesday, but what the hell: j0, I’m a dyke. Deal with it. If you didn’t know that already, I don’t know where the hell you been. Uranus, maybe. XD

If you also didn’t know this already, My Boyfriend is Sailor Moon slash commentary, about the reported attempt to swap the gender of one Sailor to make her into a heterosexual pretty-boy. If you don’t know the story, it’s here. And all lulz aside, this kind of shit is why I still post on Coming Out Day.

I’m also a total Kigo shipper. I have Kigo art on one of my stage props, just for my own amusement. There, that’s maybe something you didn’t know. ^_^

G’morning, everyone! I hope everyone relevant enjoyed a good First Thanksgiving! It’s another Project Week here in the Lair.

FIRST: I want to set up a house concert tour for early winter! I expect both the tour and the houses to be little. ^_^ You and six friends? That’s good enough! These are supposed to be intimate and friendly, while still being actual shows.

I’m looking for anywhere between Vancouver in the north, south to Eugene. I have sent out mail to an assortment of people already, but if you know anybody or are interested yourself? Let me know!

You’ll note this is along the Cascadian rail line. If I can do this by TRAIN! that’s all the better. Acoustic shows don’t need a PA, which means CONCERT TRAIN WOOOOOOOOOO! n/ But you don’t have to have a train station.

SECOND: I’ve been brushing up on screenprinting technique. I’ve been thinking about the TICKIEBOX IS MY MASTER NOW T-shirts, and those shirts are really spendy and that’s without me making money! And that’s stupid, because money should flow towards the supervillain. So I realised, “hey, I’ve got a screen and a squeegee, why am I giving them a piece of the action?” Well, okay, because that was fast and let me bring the lulz. But we’re past that now!

What would you guys like for T-shirts? Drop suggestions in comments. It has to be pretty simple, ’cause I’m new at this. I do have kind of a straightforward idea for a basic crew/street team black T I could try first. These images are first-drafts, but give you the idea:

Front

Back

They’d be available at cost to crew and street team and on any T that people wanted to send me. Others? It’d depend on interest. Whaddya think?

THIRD: I’m working on a new song I may release as a web single. I actually wrote a big chunk of it a while ago but it’s been sitting not-quite-ready-for-prime-time for over a year. It’s about a lot of the same shit the OWS people have been on about. I played with it a bit up in Vancouver last week, but I need a more generalised version, and I think I have that now. I’m excited about this.

FOURTH: I’m on the greater concom of the Norwescon Science Fiction Convention, running nwcMUSIC, the music programming event within Norwescon.

We had a meeting on Saturday. Next door:

LINE UP, PRIVATES!

I have, of course, submitted it to FailBLOG, where you may vote. Enjoy!

Leannan Sidhe is in the Lair, working out some vocal scratch tracks to hand to her minions (no) guitar slaves (no) bandmates for the next set of songs she’s writing. (Gods dammit it’s hard working with musicians who aren’t supervillains, I gotta tell you. All the terms change.) She’s already thinking ahead to her next album, which is what any good supervillain musician really should be doing if they have a lot of ideas.

Ambitious ideas. Muah.

But also, I’m trying to put together a little late autumn/winter house concert tour! I’ve already got a bunch of people to contact – and have sent a bunch of mail – but if you host that sort of thing and I don’t know about it already, let me know! I haven’t done this before, so I’m mostly looking for small house concerts – even 6-12 people would be fun. I’m wanting to do a series of intimate and unique house concerts up and down the Cascadian corridor. So, LET THE CONCERT …. TRAIN …. THINGIE …. START!

Goddammit I should’ve rehearsed that. XD

Anyway, send me mail if you know somebody, anywhere between Vancouver and Eugene. Also Victoria! I’ve never been to Victoria. NO REALLY I HAVEN’T IT’S JUST SAD. HELP ME FIX THIS!

The Botanical Apocalypse poll is still going! If the answer you want isn’t on there, comment and I’ll add it. This isn’t a contest, it’s research. (My gf Poison Ivy wants to know.)

Finally, enjoy a conversation from the Lair:

Minion Paul: IS THIS REAL?! THEY EAT SQUID INK?!
Solarbird: Why is this surprising?
Minion Paul: It’s black! It’s disgusting!
Solarbird: Sesame ice cream is black and that’s really good!
Minion Paul: Sesame ice cream doesn’t come out of a creature’s orifice!
Solarbird: Milk comes out of a cow!
Minion Paul: MILK is not BLACK!
Solarbird: Now I need to genetically engineer a cow that makes sesame ice cream.
Minion Paul: …
Minion Anna: Well, what’s what you get for living with a supervillain.

Leannan Sidhe announces that she has determined that Cthulhu’s weakness is soy sauce, and hypothesises about the wisdom of Cthulhu sushi. She’s hoping for a Guild grant. I think she may have supervillain potential after all!

Welcome to October! October, the month that feels like going home, the month of falling leaves, of horror movies, of Halloween, of rainy season, of no more flowers but not yet snow, of the Great Pumpkin, and of Wild Chickens. They go for the kill.

I’m in more of a Poison Ivy mood, even if DC Comics probably screwed her up too in the reboot. (<RAEG>GIVE ME BACK MY POISON IVY/HARLEY QUINN YOU ASSHOLES!</RAEG>) We spent a lot of time this past summer trying to beat back the local strangleweeds, debating over which was the leader. Now, as far as I’m concerned, it all has to end in fire, but who do you think is in charge of the Cascadian botanical apocalypse?

[poll id=”11″]

And for those of you not lucky enough to live in the Republic, what’s going to engulf your world come the Ragweednarok? As always, if the answer you want isn’t here, DO NOT VOTE, but instead put it in comments. I will add it, and you can vote for it then.

[poll id=”12″]

And if that’s not enough evil for you, check this shit out, found by lj:Flashfire: SAUNAPANTS: THE NEXT GENERATION. You want a terrifying picture?

Yes, it’s Commander Riker. In Saunapants. RedARERT!

PS: Don’t forget that tickiebox is your master now! Also the latest Cracksman Betty song, I’m a Rover, Live at Juanita Bay. Enjoy!

…ME! For being at VCON this past weekend! It’s a smallish F&SF convention, but it’s been going a long time and this year was just lovely. I had all kinds of fun meeting people I know, people I knew from only the net, meeting a bunch of people I had not previously known at all, getting to act out like a crazy person on performance panels (TURKEY READINGS so funny XD ), lolling at Godzilla field research, seeing the single best art show I’ve ever seen at an F&SF convention, explaining away wretched science in classic SF, and generally kicking around like a crazy person on speedmetal. And they put up with it!

Okay, so maybe they had to call in reinforcements.

Guys, you’re great! Let’s do that again next year. Shaddyr, keep this up, f’srs. Garth, Karl, Foxipher, all you lot, it was great meeting or re-meeting you. And I’ve left so many people out it’s just stupid! I’m sorry!

Also, I have cider, bagels of the gods, new reading material, and GREEN AND BLACK KITTY EARS!

Kitty ears are, apparently, the fast-track to good behaviour dealing with US customs. I’ve never been treated half that nicely before. ph33r th3 cut3 0n3s, guys. ph33r th3m.

not one of the cut3 0n3s. ph33r it anyway.

Oh, fine, I’ll stop now. WE HAVE A CONTEST WINNER! For those new, we do occasional polls here at the Blog of Evil, on various geeky topics. They usually appear on Wednesdays, but I make no promises. A couple of weeks ago, we asked about your apocalypse engine of choice, and “Rain of jaguars” was our unexpected winner, and that prompted readers to talking about how Apocalypse Jaguar makes a great band name, and people started coming up with album titles.

So I said, “Okay, I can do that XD” and made a contest out of reader entries, submitter of the winning entry to get an autographed copy of Dick Tracy Must Die.

AND OUR WINNER IS:

Rialian’s entry, 2012, Mother Maya Metampomp Up the Volume

…an entry submitted on the blog, in comments. Congratulations, Rialian! Everybody, bow before them! DO IT! Don’t make me use the kitty ears. I’m just looking for excuses. XD

Rialian, I’ll a physical mailing address – I’ll email you about that, assuming the registration email works. If it doesn’t, email me through the contact page.

Thanks to everyone who entered, and congratulations again to our winner!

I’ve got an idea for a poll for Wednesday. It probably doesn’t involve hornets. Probably.

Apparently The Wall Street Journal scrapes my Livejournal! Presumably for the economics posts. That’s funny! Since that really is the newspaper of record for a certain class of supervillain, I’m totes onboard with that. I’ve even seen a few hits from that page! Hi, guys! If you’re looking for opportunities for positions in my minion legions, the application form is on the Contact page; good luck!

Here, have a bunch of awesome things:

• I need one of these shirts desperately. Women’s medium or small, black. Somebody steal one for me. XD
• I also need these, to combine with these, for both diorama and plotting purposes. Also fun for kids!
• Want to read about orphaned farm boys? [No] Tough. SF Signal flowcharts NPR’s Top 100 F&SF books. XD
• How to troll 150 classmates. Or, at least, the nontrivial percentage who can’t be bothered to watch the movie for film class.

GO VOTE in the contest poll! All these entries are by people reading this thing, so go support their creativity. o/ And, of course, if you missed it: NEW TRAD O’ TH’ MONTH! Like all the Cracksman Betty project, it’s a free/pay-what-you-like download.

I’m off to VCON! I may and may not have net access. Try not to blow up the lair while I’m gone. Have a good weekend, minions!

ps: Here, have domesticated Russian foxes being very cute. Don’t say I never gave you nothin’. XD