Showbox at the Market tonight:
http://www.showboxonline.com/market/eventdetail.php?id=26985
I am going and hope to run into Seattle people there. Actually, I’m hoping to run into Seattle goth community people who I haven’t seen since the Sisters of Mercy concert, but I dunno how likely that is.
And if I’m alllll alllloooone that’s okay too, because it’s like cabaret, and drinking alone moodily is entirely appropriate.
I’ve been meaning to post about a few things I liked recently.
The World Fantasy Convention Giant Box o’ Books has supplied at least two winners so far, Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey and Audrey’s Door by Sarah Langan.
Sandman Slim is about a guy who comes back from Hell to wreak havoc on the people who sent him there. It’s funny and fast-moving and reminded me of why I used to like Hellblazer so much. It’s set in LA.
Audrey’s Door is about a woman who is being driven crazy by her apartment, or perhaps she was crazy to begin with. A little bit The Tenant, a little bit The Shining. It’s set in New York. Of course. Everybody knows that LA is the gateway to Hell, and New York is the place where the buildings try to eat your soul.
I was not familiar with either author but I will definitely read other stuff by them.
I also recently read Sunshine by Robin McKinley. I actually read a fair amount of Robin McKinley when I was young and always liked her, but she kind of fell off my radar as an adult. I don’t know why, really. It seemed to happen when I was reading less vaguely Tolkienesque fantasy, even though that’s not the kind of fantasy she writes.
Anyway, Sunshine is a vampire novel and it’s very good. It actually made the vampires seem scary. I would recommend it highly especially if you’re into that whole “urban fantasy” thing, since it has a lot of the same tropes, but it’s just, you know, better.
(I’ve got nothing against urban fantasy, but now that it’s become a thing, too much of it has that stale, formulaic feeling. You know what I mean. Don’t you? You have to know what I mean.)
Sunshine is set in a small town in Oregon. I don’t know if she based it on a real town, but it feels like it’s based on a real town. I kept picturing Ashland or someplace like that.
I also recently finished watching Life on Mars (the BRITISH one) and it’s really good. It’s a time travel fantasy horror romance police detective show. Very well written, very thoughtfully put together, excellent use of early 70s music, and man, do I want Sam’s leather jacket now.
Oh, and, I forgot to mention: I’ve been listening to nothing but David Bowie since finishing the last episode.
I loved Sunshine!
Best of luck with the Evelyn Evelyn gig. My fried caught AFP recently and she was completely enthralled. Also, have fun with the local goth crowd. If you run into an Aine or John Branch, tell them I said hi.
Sunshine sounds like a lot of fun. I’ve gotten tired of the whole urban fantasy (Thank you White Wolf and Neil Gaiman for writing the book on it), and vampires that are actually scary is always a good thing IMO
I liked Kadrey’s Metrophage, but I wasn’t as fond of Kamikaze L’Amour. Don’t remember why now, but I think I had some of the same problems with it that I have with Steve Erickson (and considering how much some people I know love Steve Erickson, that might actually be a recommendation).
I own both series 1 & 2 of BBC’s Life on Mars!