Wiscon! (mostly shout-outs. cover your ears!)

Whew! What a weekend. Though I go from hating to loving conventions quicker than I can drink a cup of coffee (i.e. fast), I had a wonderful time seeing some wonderful people. Especially Chris, of course, who has been America-deficient for past two years (lucky guy). He's come back, changed, minus some pounds, plus a greater Karaoke voice, and imbued with a peace and calm I relate to Japan. And, damn, that boy can dance!

And now, shouts-outs:

Much love (and ironic curses) to my new best friends Amber van Dyk, Chance Morrison, and Lisa Deguchi for making me feel at home. You guys were my salvation and I seemed to never run out of things to say around you all. Obvious shout-outs to Kristin and Alan for your continued spirit and inspiration in all things (even writing). An honor to finally meet Mary Rickert and hear her read from her beautiful work. Karen Meisner's soft and kind self made me smile. Very glad I got to thank Christopher Rowe for Say and share innumerable drinks with the group collective of Kelly, Gavin, Gwenda, Barb, Richard, etc. I always felt enlivened and young (again) in the presence of Mehgan McCarron and Alice Kim (both of whom have great stories in the new Rabid Transit). Dave Schwartz is scary-looking without hair (sorry. truth.) As always, wonderful to see Hannah Wolf Bowen, sorry sorry sorry I didn't make it to the Mafia game. I proved my theory that Haddayr Copley-Woods is one of the most interesting and considerate and just plain friendly people in the science fiction world. Ben Rosenbaum reminds me of an Israeli artist I once knew who was sorta insane but in the best best way.

It is truly a honor to know so many talented people.

/end cheesiness.

Say it Again

Gwenda has kindly posted the offical TOC of the newest issue of Say.. which, from the looks of it, will be great. Say has always impressed me by their choice of contributors, some wonderful writers working in the underground SF world right now. And, of course, some incredible cover art. The previous issue's cover is one of my favorite magazine covers I've ever seen. I'm also particularly honored to share a TOC with Ms. Awesomeness Hannah Wolf Bowen, Mr. Important Reviewer Matthew Cheney, and Ms. Superstar Meghan McCarron.

I've Been Busy... Watching Television

That's not meant as a joke. (Although it is kinda funny.)

I have been knee-deep in some fascinating TV and movie watching. TV is centered around Six Feet Under. HBO2 is running the entire series run following the end of the series last fall. Everyweek night at 8 an episode airs and we've watched almost fifty hours already. Any episodes missed we catch through (*cough*) other means and so I've been able to watch everything in a very fast fashion.

I love doing this, "marathoning" as I call it. I did it with Stargate SG1 and other HBO classics like Oz and The Wire. When you watch episodes back to back like this, you get an almost surreal view of the show. It creeps into your thoughts and you relate to every character's ups and downs more than a traditional viewing. It feels like you're on the rollercoaster ride with them. As for Six Feet Under, it is just a brilliantly written, charming, nuiscaned, and fascinating look at modern life. Relationships, drugs, and especially death, are so vividly protrayed, it's a joy and eye-opener to watch. It's been great enterainment and, more importantly, wonderful inspiration.

And Shawn and I have joined the Netflix revolution. We love it. Love watching more than a dozen random and disparate movies in under a month, some we've been meaning to watch for years, some we never heard of until we saw it, some clearly mainstream, most, refreshingly, not. Some highlights: Everything is Illuminated based off the novel by Johnathan Safran Foer. Gorgeous, hilarious, heartbreaking film. Jarhead, Sam Mendes' war film that borrows heavily in tone and structure from Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket. And a weird, powerful and sad film called The Squid and The Whale, a extremely realistic portrayal of a family undergoing a divorce in the mid 80's and all the hardship and pain that goes with that, before divorce became as common as showering in the morning.

The New Worst Idea Ever

As gas prices topple $3 a gallon, people all over the country seem to be waking up to what has been supremely apparent to me over the last seven years: President Bush is a puppet to the oil and auto industry! Like, duh!

So the Republican congress thought they could buy off the American public like they do with their spoiled brat children and say, "Here's a hundred dollars! Go buy yourself an iPod." (Meanwhile, the only iPod you can get for less than $300 is the Shuffle. But, anyway...) Thankfully, that idiotic plan is dying and will forever be remembered as The New Worst Idea Ever (copyright pending).

What needs to happen is this: the public, the states, and the legislative branch of our great country need to take this fight to Bush. We should prosecute him for crimes against the environment. Because the actions and inactions the President perpeterated over the last seven years (by not signing Kyoto, by ignoring scientific claims, by not over-taxing Hummers) has done irreversible damage to the environment. We've passed Go. We will not collect two hundred dollars.

In the future, when everyone has to wear gas masks to run between their cars and their glass houses, you can find me easily by looking for the one with the bumper-stick-like sign on the back: "Don't Blame Me, I Voted for Kerry."