5 posts from March 2008

 

I came across two stories that broke my heart for entirely different reasons.

 

Forever Home

See how Canada welcomed her fallen heroes who had served in Afghanistan. The pictures in the slideshow link speak for themselves.

Keep a tissue handy.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article957382.ece

 

 

No Country for Brave Men

A St.Lucia-born man was not granted British citizenship because he was not in the country on the qualifying date.

He was serving overseas in the British Army at the time.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7313541.stm

 

Soldiers from two different countries, lost in entirely different ways. Tragedy is hard to articulate.

 

 

I FINALLY finished The Mammoth Book of Awesome Comic Fantasy. Some stories were even better than in the previous one I'd read (Seriously Comic Fantasy) but some were not that funny, just not serious (although some of them were well-written.) 

 

 

Special mention:

Happy Valley by John Cleese and Connie Booth. This was originally written for Monty Python's Flying Circus.

Put Back That Universe! by F. Gywnplaine MacIntyre. I loved this - again, with lots of wordplay. Vindaloo curry finds a big mention here.

Gunsel and Gretel by Esther Eisner. I liked this one too - nicely written.

Frog by Tina Rath. A slight parody of British royalty (even contains a reference to The Sun!)

The Absolute and Utter Impossibility of the Facts in the Case of the Vanishing of Henning Vok by Jack Adrian. 

Pale Assassin by James Bibby. Nicely done, ends with a groanworthy pun.

Nothing In the Rules by Nelson Bond. Lots of wordplay. Very funny.

The Devil Times Three by Frederic Brown. Three short stories about pacts made with the devil, all involving sex.

A Case of Four Fingers by John Grant

The Caliber of the Sword by Larry Lawrence

Polly Put The Mockers On by Stan Nicholls

Attack of the Charlie Chaplins by Garry Kilworth

 

Despite being a little disappointed with this edition, I went and got yet another Mike Ashley anthology - The Mammoth Book of Fantasy.

 

 

Ah, I recognise Harlan Ellison... and there's one by J.R.R. Tolkien too. Let's see how it goes.

 

O hai! I haz maded me sum LOLs at ICHC. Plz to vote if u liek dem! Kthxbai.

 

First, a couple of LOLdogs:

 

 

No points for guessing where this one is from.

 

 

A bad pun:

 

 

That was the dogs. Now on to the kittehs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This last one is my favourite. [snicker]

 

 

And here's one by my sister.

 

There are more, but I can't find the links right now...

 

The senators try to woo Cowell and Co. on American Idol.

 

 

 

 

Hillary looks like a very pale (and blond) Betty Boop.

 

 

 

I've been going bonkers reading Mike Ashley's fantasy anthologies. This was the first one I read:

 

 

I don't remember which author wrote which story, but here I found some of the titles here. These are the ones which I remember and really liked:

A Slow Day in Hell

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

The Shoemaker and the Elvis by Lawrence Schimel - I particularly liked this one, it was very cute!

Escape from the Planet of the Bears by Tom Holt - Excellent parody.

The Case of the Four-and-Twenty-Blackbirds by David Langford. A very Film Noir, Raymond-Chandler-private-detective tale.

 

Then I read this anthology of science fiction, from the same publishers.

 

This page contains the entire list of the stories. Special Mention:

The Pen and the Dark by Colin Kapp - Gripping suspense, IMO.

Inanimate Objection by H. Chandler Elliott - This really influenced me, I started seeing all the inanimate objects in my house out to get me!

High Eight by Keith Roberts - This one was really violent and scary...

Shards by Brian W. Aldiss - Has some Monty-Pythonesque instances of brilliant wordplay.

Into Your Tent I'll Creep by Eric Frank Russell - A must-read for ICHC fans who think cats are plotting world domination. It's actually the dogs!

and my top favourite, A Death In The House by Clifford D. Simak - a sweet, touching story about a country farmer who finds a dying alien.

 

 

And now I'm on the third - The Mammoth Book of Awesome Comic Fantasy. This far surpasses the first one I read.

 

 

The opening story, Happy Valley, is by none other than John Cleese and Connie Booth. BRILLeffingIANT. The second one, Attack of the Charlie Chaplins, is also hilarious. I read a couple more but I can't remember them at the moment.

 

All of last month and this one, the Film Club at college is showing New Wave. I saw two British New Wave films this week - Saturday Night and Sunday Morning by Karel Reisz, and A Taste of Honey by Tony Richardson. The effect is already showing - I've caught myself on more than one occasion yelling in a British accent to no one in particular: "Make me a nice cup o' tea, love!"

 

The first film is like the British version of On The Waterfront, because Albert Finney's chequered shirts look like those worn by Brando. But he's different in that Finney doesn't have any of Brando's affected mannerisms and brooding demeanor, and the story is of the individual and not of his entire class. And though he is very reminiscent of Brando at the beginning, he gradually grows into his own mould - a very brash, very British working-class rebel, but someone with a slightly playful side.

The second film is a funny and poignant story of Jo, a schoolgirl who falls in love and gets pregnant by a black British sailor, and eventually befriends a gay man Geoffrey, while her single mother Helen continues to pursue men and neglect her. Rita Tushingham, who played Jo, was brilliant. I couldn't shake off the feeling that she somewhat resembled another famous actor throughout the movie, and it was only when it ended that I realised that I was thinking of Gael García Bernal! Her mother's character, Helen, does have occasional lapses of maternal instinct for her child, but failed to redeem herself towards the end when she selfishly barges into the house after a failed marriage and drives out her daughter's caring gay roommate.

 

Oh, and I just downloaded the first 9 songs of Nine Inch Nails' brand new album Ghosts I-IV. Whee!

(Thanks to Bobavey for the info!)