Goats, Violins, Fish with Hands

August 31

Well, hey -- A Certain Magazine won a Hugo! Go, us! And Buffy got some respect, too! I'll spare you my opinions on the other winners -- some I'm happy about, some I'm disappointed in. C'est l'awards.

I got a wonderful blurb for Little Gods from the one and only James Morrow. Jim says: "The little god of dazzling prose, the minor deity of poetic hallucination, the modest angel of magic realism, and the humble avatar of dark mystic vision are all smiling on this extraordinary collection from the talented Tim Pratt."

How wonderful is that?

On the other hand, Brutarian rejected me. But at least they were prompt about it.

In happier news, Small Beer has new chapbooks! Other Cities by our own Ben Rosenbaum, collecting his short-shorts from Strange Horizons and adding a couple of unpublished pieces to the series, and Bittersweet Creek by Chris Rowe. Go buy them both! (But only after you subscribe to Flytrap, of course.)

And you should go pre-order the Jay Lake/Frank Wu combo Tales from Lake Wu! (But only after you pre-order the hardcover of Little Gods, of course.)

And la la la.

We went to see the Chagall exhibit at MOMA yesterday, and it was fabulous. We drove into the city, found parking, had lunch, found more permanent parking, and went to the museum. The line to get in stretched halfway around the building and didn't appear to be moving at all. Fortunately, we didn't have to stand in that line, because we bought tickets in advance online! Ha! So we went to the will-call line, which had absolutely no people in it, and went straight inside to the desk, and got our tickets, and, boom! Chagall.

Well, we got in a line to go and see Chagall, at any rate, but we only had to stand in that line for about 15 minutes.

The exhibit was lovely. They had some of my favorites, like "The Rooster" and "Midsummer Night's Dream," and they look so much better up close than they do as reproductions! Then there were paintings I'd never seen before, but now love, like "The Apparition," which has one of the most stunning angels I've ever seen in a painting, with wings like fractal ice. Room after room of Chagall... it was a nice way to spend an afternoon, though our legs were pretty wobbly by the time we finished. We didn't spend too much time looking at the permanent collection, and didn't feel bad about it, since we're coming back to see the Diane Arbus exhibition in a couple of months anyway. Instead we wandered over to Yerba Buena park for a bit, and decided, since we were tired of walking, to catch a movie at The Metreon. We saw American Wedding, which was more slight than American Pie 2 but still appealingly sweet at heart, and with only a couple of unbearably disgusting moments. I admit with some reluctance to having been won over by the characters in those movies. The bachelor party scenes should've gone on a lot longer, though. Ah, well. Maybe there'll be an extended DVD...

We didn't make it to Golden Gate Park, alas. Another time. I just need to go there before I do revisions, I suppose, to flesh out some skeletal scenes and correct some set-dressing. It's not like I've never been before. I can fake it. That's what first drafts are for!

Last night was fun. Frolicking, and Jaws, and a bad '70s British horror movie! A few days ago, while fiddling with the VCR, I discovered that the cable wasn't turned off in this apartment when the previous tenant moved out. So, yes, we have basic cable, until the company notices that we have it and turn it off. This could be quite dangerous. We are trying to be strong.

Tonight we watched Bowling for Columbine. I know Moore has been (justly) accused of doing some manipulative stuff in that film, but even so, I found it quite compelling. It brought up a lot of interesting points. I don't have much else to say about it; still processing...

I read an advance copy of The Crystal City, the newest "Alvin Maker" book by Orson Scott Card, and it was quite good -- really moved the overall arc of the series forward, and it was a fast, fun, compelling read, which is almost always the case with Scott's work. I wish he'd lingered a bit more over the downfall of the Aztecs, but that's mostly because of my interest in that culture. "Alvin Maker" is a great series, one of my favorites, and I'm glad Scott got back to it after such a long hiatus.

Currently reading Pamie's book, Why Girls Are Weird -- fast and funny, very pleasant. Nice weekend reading.

I did another 1500 words of the Frog novel. It's moving well, and I hope to spend more time working on it tomorrow. Today sort of vanished into reading, and a foray over to Lakeshore/Grand to buy coffee and treats of various sorts, and television-watching. Not a bad way to spend the middle of a three-day weekend.

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