The Body Corporate made the James Tiptree, Jr. Award Long List

Which is totally cool.

Take a look at the Winners, the Honorees, and us Long Listers here.

You can read the story here.

China Mievelle's The City & the City

Sense of place. That's what China Miéville is able to infuse into his work. In Perdido Street Station, he brought New Crobuzon, a re-imagined London to life. In Iron Council it was the deserts of Bas Lag. And with The City & the City he's made believable two city-states that occupy the same physical space, Ul Qoma and Besźel. They maintain their sovereignty by enforcing strict cultural boarders so that citizens of the two city-states walking down the same street don't even see each other, let alone interact. And I have to say: I loved it. I loved everything about the book. Except the story. It's not that the book failed. The central conceit, of these two cities in the same space, works. It's that the final reveal of the plot, well, I just didn't buy.

Boiled down, The City & the City is a murder-mystery/police-procedural. The protagonist (Inspector Borlú) investigates the murder of a young woman (Mahalia), whose body was found in Besźel but may have been murdered in Ul Qoma. But the real star of the show is Miéville's worldbuilding.

Playing with linguistics and what I can only imagine was meticulous mapping and naming of streets and building and features, Miéville instills a believable sense of place. I mean, it's not to much of a stretch to see the commentary Miéville is making about life in modern metropolises (almost used "metropoli", but that's  incorrect): ghettos, homelessness, poverty, ethnic segregation (Chiantown, Koreatown, here in San Francisco Hunters Point and Visitacion Valley), projects, crime, affluency. Just like the citizens of Ul Qoma   "unsee" the people and cityscape of neighboring Besźel (and vice versa), inhabitants of major cities today commonly step over homeless like they never saw them, ignore corruption and violence, don't see urban decay, and dismiss that which isn't right in front of them. My self included. Cities are dirty places and beautiful places, but there's a certain amount of unseeing one has to do to live in a major city or you'll be overwhelmed by it all (or at least, that's the rationalization I use). I think Miéville tapped right into that, which made the story work so well.

That said, the set up doesn't seem that sustainable, which is why a third city-like entity is necessary in order to maintain the boarders: Breach. Breach is the organization that makes sure the boarders between the cities are maintained and disappears anyone who dares to break the boarders. If one were to claim that The City and the City wasn't a spec-fic novel, I'd mostly agree, except for Breach. These near mythic enforcers appear out of nowhere, are seemingly ubiquitous and witnesses can't recall what they look like. And they have fancy weird weapons that knock people out.

Breach exists because in reality, boarders are porous and frankly the two cities would end up as one if it weren't for the other supernatural powers of Breach.

At times, the protagonist's insights into linguistics and etymology didn't ring true and sounded more like the author infodumping bits of cultural history and information through a conveniently knowledgeable narrator.

Still even that worked in the story, even if I didn't buy it. What didn't make sense was the actual story:

[SPOILER ALERT]

So, an international tech company pays a member of the Besźel government (a guy named Buric) to secure ancient artifacts from a dig that's plot-conveniently only in Ul Qoma (even though that's not how archaeology of major cities work), artifacts which are plot-conveniently Exotic-Mysterious objects of dubious physics, which this international tech company covets so that it can do research and development. Never mind what the physics or what the artifacts really are or even what kind of R&D this tech company wants to do with the artifacts (I'm more or less okay with this smokescreen, because that's what it is; these are Macguffins, Red Herrings, plot devices to keep the reader distracted and the plot moving, it's just that these were so convenient and executed in such a bulky manner. So convenient, that if they didn't exist as they did, which they did for no reason explained in the book (like why Ul Qoma is artifact rich and Beszel isn't; just trust us! Suspend your disbelief!) then the whole plot would fall apart.

Anyhow, Buric, hoping to secure said artifacts, contacts crazy old professor Bowden who wrote about Orciny (the third secret city, a conspiracy theorist's wet dream; the Trilateral Commission of Beszel/Ul Qoma) to manipulate a student (Mahalia) into smuggling Ul Qoma artifacts over to Beszel, but ends up killing her cause she doesn't believe in Orciny anymore, but instead of turning him in, Buric and Tech Company cover up Mahalia's murder. I mean, what's an international Tech Company to do? How else can they get artifacts with dubious physics? I mean, there's no possible way that they could say team up with the University of the Prince of Wales in Canada and build a whole new research facility for the University to do the kind of research they wanted and still control products and patents gleaned from said research, as partners with the university. No, that never happens (Google-Stanford, MIT-Every Huge Tech Company, CalTech-Every Huge Tech Company).

See, I just didn't get why the international Tech Company didn't just Buy Their Way In. Happens all the time. And in fact that's the take away at the end of the book when they corner international Tech Company: "What are you going to do? Your Government will never prosecute/punish me." And then he literally flies off in a helicopter with the artifacts of dubious physics (Note: Bowden, who was on the pay roll, actually HAD an artifact of dubious physics ALL ALONG, and just never bothered to sell it off).

The fact that a big tech company went out of its way to initiate such a convoluted plot, well, it left the ending a bit lacking. A lot lacking.

Other than that, this book ruled.

Short Story: The Redesign - NewMyths.com (2016)

Hey, hey, hey, y'all:

Got a fresh new story hot off the digital webs all ready for your eyes. The Redesign is live over at NewMyths.com. I workshopped this way back in 2014. I wrote this on invitation, for an anthology. Which was a mistake. At least, for me. It was so tailored to the anthology that after they rejected it, I found it wasn't really a good fit anywhere else. I mean, at least, that's what they told me when it was rejected twenty or so times. One place did actually want it for a minute, dropped me a rewrite request. I worked it over for a month, they thought about it for a while, and then decided they really didn't want it. Thems the breaks kid. But then the lovely people over at NewMyths.com decided they wanted it, so it all worked out in the end. 

It's funny. Like all other document media, it takes a while for things to come out. Like I said, I wrote this two years ago and feel I've moved way beyond this piece. Reading this is like looking back at 2014 me and shaking my head. Oh, not cause I don't like it, just my tastes and interests and style has changed, but this work stays frozen in time. Which is good. Or a thing, at least. 

I like the story, and still feel that the central concept is good: after the robots rise up and take over, then what will they do? Or more specifically, will they continue on being and making robots that reflect their human origins? And if not, what would that look like? Well, who really know. Sure as shit not me. But, this being fiction, I can suppose. And I do. I think they'd do a drastic Redesign.

Automation by Amanda Burgloff from NewMyths.com Issue 34, 2016.

From Turkey to Bulgaria and Back

Sooo... back in 2003, I went on a trip to Bulgaria via Turkey for a month with Jessica Naugle. And a I made an audio travelogue on a little hand held recorder. Came back, transferred it all onto tape with and ADAT machine I picked up off my friend Sonny Walker (who recorded my first American Chamber Music EP), edited it, played it for friends and family... and there it sat... for thirteen years.

Now listen, this was 2003. There was no Soundcloud, no Bandcamp, and Myspace launched August 1, 2003, the very same day we started our trip. So, on ADAT tape it slept. As platforms and hosting has become basically free on places like Soundcloud and Bandcamp, I'd been thinking of popping this bad boy onto the web. So, I did!

Here it is:

It was a pretty great trip. Both Bulgaria and Turkey are totally worth checking out.

In case you want notes on the sounds, here are the comments I tagged up on Soundcloud:

0:05:

We rode a lot of trains on the trip.

0:20:

And we had to find ways to entertain ourselves.

1:38:

This was taken from a whirling dervish performance in Istanbul, if I recall correctly. At the train station. I think it's a thing.

1:52:

The sound of a real mechanical recorder. It's tape folks. Actually, I like that little warp.

2:06:

This is one of my favorite recorded moments: outside a mosque, everyone coming up and washing their feet. Hey, it's Turkey, it's hot, let's wash our feet in nice cool water. Was very communal and everyone was in great spirits.

2:19:

The ezan in Istanbul.

3:37:

Love these crickets.

3:48:

This is in Bulgaria. We were just hiking and came across this natural bubbling spring.

4:09:

I really like how audio-telegraphing these religions and regions are. The ezan in Turkey, church bells in Bulgaria.

5:45:

Aaaand then we came across this abandoned train tunnel. Just in the middle of the forest. Was very creepy. So we bang shit and made weird noises. Had a blast.

7:07:

Pretty sure this is a harbor on the Black Sea.

7:37:

Back to civilization. Sofia, Bulgaria.

7:39:

Jessica laughing. Probably at me.

7:44:

Street Busker, his English singing wasn't half bad.

8:01:

Crickets. Nighttime in Bulgaria.

8:17:

An organ grinder. Like a real old school, monkey in a funny hat and vest working the organ, organ grinder. Was awesome.

8:39:

Then we came across an outdoor music festival. Don't think we ever really figured out what it was for. Just happened.

10:31

Street musician. He was playing a tiny little bagpipes. Bagpipes, folks, aren't just from Scotland: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagpipes

10:49:

Same festival. Marching drums.

11:38:

And then we had to go back to Turkey. We flew in and out of Istanbul so we got back on the rails.

12:40:

We were terrible. But had a great time.

12:55:

Istanbul rail station. Don't know why they had such light and airy music.

13:20:

Medley of my favorite moments.

Rila Monastery, Bulgaria, where you can spend the night with monks.

All Art Of the Past Must Be Destroyed

Pierre Boulez died this week. What bummer. Still, he was around a long time. This guy was doing all sorts of great things back in the day. You should check him out sometime.

One of the greatest things he said, something that's stayed with me for a while: 

Okay, anyhow, here's some tunes by ol' Boulie:

Also, this list he compiled of the best of 20th Century music is a great list. The list is here.

Mr. Burns

Going through some posts I started last year and for whatever reason forgot to finish, or in the case of this one, forgot to press "Post." Weird. This is a little late for most, as it's not playing in SF anymore, but if it comes round to theater near you. Check it out:

I don't rate plays, because I don't go to them, but saw Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play: it was fantastic. Go watch it. Here's a pretty good podcast about it.

James Tiptree Jr

Hey, y'all! Bit of good news: seems someone cares! And I don't think it's just my mom!

I got on the recommended reading list for the James Tiptree, Jr award, for "The Body Corporate," which went up over at GigaNotoSaurus in September. An award is always cool, but what's even more cool is that I actually follow this award. I wrote my entry essay for Clarion West on Science Fiction and Gender, which ever since my friend Jef Samp lent me an anthology of androgynous-themed science fiction (it had some plucky name like Andropunk or something; I'll have to dig around) in High School I've always had an eye out for gender in science fiction. I wasn't ready for it then, in High School, kinda blew my mind, but that anthology stayed with me and I've always thought that gender and sexuality were two secret subversive weapons of Science Fiction, both in literature and in Fandom. It's something I toy with from time to time. So it'd nice someone noticed.

So, to whoever you are out there: You've got good taste.

Check out the list here.

Oh, and a Clarionmate from my year also got nominated, check out her story here.

Sounds: Deafheaven - Baby Blue

Sounds: Solvent - Think Like Us

This is good:

Sounds: Jonzun Crew - Ground Control

Time to get back to sharing good musics that I've picked up along the way. This one was a great find. If you know anything about my current band, Face Tat, you'll hear obvious similarities. I certainly did. Caught this track at an underground show in Oakland right after getting off tour and I was pissed. "Who's stealing my sound?" When I asked the DJ she said it was the Jonzun Crew, from 1983. I was blown away. Never heard of them. And when I saw their look, I was blown away:

Fuck yeah!

Apparently they were a Afrofuturistic take on the Parliment Funkadelic. You think? Anyhow, this track just slays. Love the vocoder. Can't believe this is a band that time almost forgot. Except one of the crew went on to help produce the New Kids on the Block. Yeah.

Give an ear: 

Behold: Face Tat - Open Up Your Arms

Whaaaaaaaaaaaat!? Face Tat's got a new single out! It's off our upcoming Spring 2016 full length. The track is called "Open Up Your Arms."

Check it:

We wrote this pretty quick, in early 2015, with the first batch of songs ideas for this album. I bought a new keyboard off a main damie of mine, Roger Thomasson, a Roland Gaia SH-01, and started futzing around with it, trying to figure that beast out and quickly came across this massive crackly bass sound. It just booms. Especially live. After that, we put that drone on it, which came off my microKORG, which is probably the best most capable little synth I've ever had the pleasure to work with. It comes with so many good stock sounds that you can easily manipulate into your own. The knobs at the top are pretty intuitive and if you really want to get deep in it, you can actually build sounds from the ground up with the function selectors that change what the knobbies affect. I mean, you really can do that with any modern synth: Akai, Nord, even the Gaia, it's just that I learned on the mK first and their approach is so easy to interact with, it's my go-to. And I hear it everywhere. Everyone's got one but they're so customizable that its sound doesn't get played out. I saw Flying Lotus last year and heard him drop this bass line that I immediately knew came from a mK. And sure enough, later on I saw an interview with him talking about his gear and bam, right there is a mK and he even goes on to talk about it. Anyhow, enough of the Korg plug here. (Korg, sponsor our next tour, dammit!)

That weird chime sound is actually from my Roland Octapad SPD-30, which is a cool little midi drum pad. Got some stock effects. Ran some chimes on the Octapad with some reverse delay and then futzed with the tuning of each cluster of notes. Meaning, lots of microtones. Like I'm playing A-C-A in the first part, but the C is tuned a few cents up, while the second A is actually a different pad and it's tuned a few cents down from the other A. With the delay it creates this shimmery, pretty, slightly discordant effect that lends itself to the dark feel of the song. Like our engineer who mixed this for us said: "This song is all about the feels." And they're pretty dark feels.

I rounded it out with that key solo also off the Gaia, which is a great sound that just dominates. Which is why it's only played twice in the song.

Mike started channeling more metal with his guitar around the time we started this album, which I'm sure you noticed. He put a ton of layers, different guitars, a bass guitar, and different room and close mic position, tried a few different amps, all to get that deep, deep chug. I'm sure he could say more about the guitars, a lot more, but he's not here right now. We through on vox and even some vocoder and used Ableton Live to write up some drums, and boom, there you have it. It didn't take us long to separate out the backing vocals into that more round-like give and take at the end, which he and I were both pumped about.

We mixed it over at Different Fur and then threw it up onto Bandcamp and into your ears. You are welcome.

Cool Cat I Met On The Street The Other Day

I met this cool cat on the street the other day. So I made a video of our encounter. This is it. I was listening to the Album Leaf at the time. Thus:

Music - The Album Leaf - the Outer Banks

Short Story: The Body Corporate - GigaNotoSaurus (2015)

Hey, y'all. A bit of news:

Sold a short story to GigaNotoSaurus: "The Body Corporate."

This is one of those that went around to everyone and they all "loved" it but no one wanted it. Love might be the new hate.

Luckily, someone did love it: Rashida J. Smith! An editor who put up with my many nits with a smooth grace.

This story was written in response to a friend of mine who wanted to write a story about natives vs. corporates. He pitched it to me and by the end of the discussion I had so many ideas that I had the start of my own short. So, thanks Mike. I stole your idea.

Oh, that and the "Grimly" at the end of the story was directly inspired/a riff on this terrible creature:

Malaysian Assassin Bug!

http://www.arkinspace.com/2012/05/assassin-bug-malaysias-macabre.html

Check it out!

Ancient Modern New York

There's three things amazing about this video:

First, that it's amazing. I mean, just look! Ancient Modern New York!

Second, they had tons of stuff. I mean, I know this. I seen Once Upon a Time in America! And Gangs of New York, a documentary made in real-time, that showcased how wonderful New Yorkers used to be at throwing knives. But seriously, just like at the advent of writing, human civilization already had economics and art and oral literature and metallurgy and music and painting and math and geometry and architecture. Ancient humans had many of the thing we have today. Just no television. Or BuzzFeed. And just like then, Ancient Modern New Yorkers had cars and huge buildings and rail cars and subways and tons of large structures. Duh. Still, it's crazy to see it, and realize that they didn't have frikkin' cameras, especially motion picture cameras, up until that point. Especially given that we've evolved into such a visual society. Thus ----> Buzzfeed gifs.

The third amazing thing is that at 4:10 seconds the video shows a building being demolished. Only it wasn't. It was deconstructed. And you know why? Cause with all the things that they did have back in the good ol' days, they didn't have bulldozers (circa 1923). They barely had cars.

Now, they've had cranes in one form or another since Ancient Egypt. But even up until late 1800s most of the cranes were big, bulky, built in place, and a combination of pulleys, cables, and hydraulics that were man or machine powered (some were hydropowered). Point is, they didn't build a crane for a wrecking ball, because A- the resouces (one of the first recorded uses of a steel wrecking ball was in the 1880s) and B- what were they going to do with the rubble? If you watch the demolishment of the building they didn't knock it down and bulldoze it, they took it apart brick by brick! Or maybe sledgehammer by sledgehammer, wheelbarrow by wheelbarrow. It was more deconstructed, piece by piece. This also makes sense as many buildings back in the day were recycled into new buildings and homes. After World War II locals west of Aushcwitz reused bricks from krema gas-chambers to construct farmhouses. Course, that was in part because they were impoverished by war, but still.

The past is a crazy place.

Face Tat's on Soundcloud

Yeah, I know. Christmas came early this year. Or maybe it's just late from last year. Face Tat got itself a Soundcloud page and one of the things we put up on it was an ambient piece we did for Subliminal Message #2, a little dealie thing/live performance/ambient listen-in that we were invited to do at the Tides theater. And it looks like we're going to do it again for Subliminal Message #4 at the DeYoung Museum for a month long residency. They're be more about that later, but yeah, Face Tat's going to have some tunes up at the DeYoung for a month. In the meantime, you can take a listen to what we did last year. For my part I did a lot of breathing and monotone droning on an E note. I think I had allergies that day and started doing the deep breaths cause I felt like I couldn't catch my breath. Eventually, I did catch my breath and I didn't die, which is how I'm here typing this right now. Check the player if you want some trippy tunes, bra!

On the Challenge to Not Read Straight White Cis-Gendered Males for a Year

Identity politics is always tricky, but I really don't understand what the big deal is. Author K. Tempest Bradford has thrown down the gauntlet: "What if I only read stories by a certain type of author? Instead of reading everything, I would only look at stories by women or people of color or LGBT writers. Essentially: no straight, cis, white males." She's challenged people to read other voices for a year.

In the past, I've done personal challenges (though I'd never call them challenges, just more like personal goals) similar to this. Never before for a year. And never before exclusively. I'm even in one right now. I've been trying to read mostly female crime fiction writers. Just finished Megan Abbott's Die a Little and am starting Ruth Rendell's Live Flesh. (If people have recs, please leave a comment.)

I totally get the part that people feel about discriminating against one group. But there's definitely an argument that the group she and supporters are targeting is the dominant and over-represented group, so therefore, it's pretty much impossible to effectively discriminate against. And let's be real, this challenge will do nothing to Jonathan Franzen's book sales. But even more to the point, so what? If she wrote it different and said, "Hey, I read no straight, cis, white males for a year and this is what I found..." then would anyone care? Is it the fact that she's trying to enlist others? Is she even though? It's a challenge, you don't have to accept it. If I went for a two year masters in black studies and only read black authors for a year, would you give a shit? And if at a party I said to you, "Hey, you should get a master's in black studies and only read black authors for two years. Heck everyone should!" would that be me enlisting others for discrimination? No. I don't think so.

I've seen some object to the slashed through Neil Gaiman book (to which he responds: "For anyone hoping for outrage, I think that @tinytempest's article at [link] is great, & don't mind being the posterbook"),as if it that means that she's going to go out and start burning books, starting with American Gods (which, if that's true, I have some matches; I kid!). And there's some unfortunate click-baity stuff even on the website, making it sound like she's calling for a boycott. But really, it's a challenge. Not a judgment or a policy. She's not calling for the banning of a type of author. She's saying, hey, try it, see what happens. And as any non state sponsored challenge that is not overseen by any board, judges, or referees, you're free to interpret the rules how you see fit. You can only read QUILTBAG authors. Or only transgendered. Or only black. I wonder if that's it, that the language she uses in the article sounds discriminatory: I'm not going to read X group. I wonder if she reworded it: Hey, I'm only going to read QUILTBAG black and Asian writers for a year, and I challenge you to do the same.

She includes a list of authors which is great and the most value for this kind of challenge (although Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose is on there, and he's a married and Italian, which I guess doesn't count as a white European and that book is not exactly underrepresented, seeing as how it's been adapted into a movie starring Sean Connery as well as a stage play, a video game, etc.). See, I've done this before, and found under appreciated voices and books. I've gone through stages of only Scottish Authors, only Horror Authors, only Female Authors, only Non-Fiction, which has forced me to seek out authors I wouldn't have stumbled upon. And that's where I agree with her the most. Often times I've looked for a subset group to seek out and then you go to the bookstore and you realize: Hey, these authors aren't that easy to find. At the end of every aisle is Franzen or or the Hunger Games or J.K. Rowling or George R.R Martin or J.R.R. Tolkien or some other R.R. or whatever hot author popular author they are shoving in your face (unless it's Green Apple Books!). Then you have to remind yourself, no, I'm not here to read a Sue Grafton mystery, I'm here to find discourses on Edwardian lesbian poetry.

I mentioned this to Eileen Gunn, about how if anything, this would be a great resource for making participants go and seek out other voices, and she pointed me to the Carl Brandon Society's resource reading list, which taking one look at is a great place to start, especially for black writers and for Native American writers, an extremely under represented group.

Finally, she's only talking about a year. She's not calling for a lifetime ban. It's a challenge and an experiment. Hell, I'd love it if some right-wing Analog-writer Sad Puppy Award thumping author did this challenge and wrote about it. Even if at the end of the year they say: "Learned nothing! Waste of time!" But mostly I've seen them bitching and crying discrimination on the webs. White men crying about "not being included," even though the challenge is open to all. But often it's the hegemony that cries out the most when it's not invited to the part... even when it is.

(After saying all that, I'm not going to be doing this anytime soon [maybe midway through 2015, but probably not until 2016], because of my backlog:

And this doesn't even include my Kindle reading list.

But in the meantime, I'll be putting together a killer reading list.)

Hark! Er, Behold! New Face Tat Release, It's Your Funeral:

Hey, Hey, Hey Kiddies,

Well, it looks like we got ourselves a new batch of music from our favorite crime-fighting duo: FACE TAT!

It's Your Funeral, has dropped and you should have a listen, here.

And to make matters worse, they also released an album length video at the same time! Don't worry, it's only a three song EP, so it's not too long. Also, you don't have to stare at it the whole time. You can put it on in the background while you work or clean your toilet and dutifully ignore it while fulfilling your role as a supportive friend. Thanks, guys! Actually, on the real, I dare you to watch and not get mesmerized.

The video is pretty cool. What starts as a screen saver turns into... well, something more. It's computer graphics from 1968 I got off the Internet Archive. There's a linky on the Youtube info section. Check it out. Better yet, check it out, then buy it, then tweet it, then let the world know! Or just watch below.

A little something I wrote got turned into a radio drama

I mean, the title kinda says it all. I wrote up a piece of flash fiction for a contest that the Wisconsin Public Radio radio show To The Best of Our Knowledge threw earlier this year. I didn't win. Then, outta the blue, they contacted me and said they're turning my piece ("Reset") into a radio drama. So, I guess I did win something. Anyhow, here's the link to just my piece: [link]. I'm pumped to hear this in the context of the whole show. That is all.

This Is Beautiful Forever: Scene 27, Our Robocop Remake

For Your Friday: Allie - Mimi King

This: