Indonesian rock bands have a seriously weird aesthetic for self-representation, from the point of view of a Westerner, that is. You see these guys who look for all the world like a death-metal band — weird hair-tattoos (like, where they shave intricate patterns into their hair), leather and spikes, braids in their beards, and tough-guy expressions — but then you hear the music and they’re singing soft-rock, ballads, lovesong-sounding stuff. By the way, I’m not ignoring the comments that are being made here… but after half an hour at the Starbucks, discovering that everything (including Gmail) except my website was …
Month: January 2010
When ATMs Attack, or, How Things are Going in Depok/Jakarta
I’ll be going back to Jakarta tomorrow because a certain ATM has decided to swallow my Samsung Card (a credit card) and not spit it out again. Put the card in the machine, watch it crash, watching Windows reboot (with the Diebold brand name proudly displayed, of course!)… quite a sad sight. The first time it happened was a week ago, and I thought it was a freak accident. Turns out, no, not at all. Samsung Cards crash BNC ATM machines in Jakarta, it seems. Or at least, at the mall I was at. Other than that, things are going …
Rabid Dung Beetles
One reason I love my friend Adam Lipscomb’s blog is because of what he writes about politics — or, rather, the magical way he writes about idiots in politics and religion in America. For example, this post. Go on, read it, it’s short, and it has Pat Robertson, rabid dung beetles, rotted Norway rads, fetid dogshit, and Pat Robertson shitting his own teeth. It’s beautiful. A beautiful imagine for the rationalists of today. Now, skipping to the meat, the point is that Pat Robertson claimed that “they” (them folks in Haiti) made a pact with the devil and that’s why …
And Another Thing… (Clarkesworld Poll)
Those of you who’ve been reading Clarkesworld over the past year may want to participate in the magazine’s 2009 readers’ poll, which is running till the end of January. Along with my short story, “Of Melei, of Ulthar,” there are bunches of other great stories and cover art to vote on too!
Purdy Covers and More Publication News…
Well, it’s time for an update. I may have mentioned some of this before, but to make sure I’ve mentioned it all: Carmelo Rafala has added my story, “The Broken Pathway” to The Immersion Book of SF, Vol. 1, which is due out sometime this spring from Immersion Press. It’s a story near to my heart, because it’s set in the neighborhood where I live, but a little over a century ago, during the Sino-Japanese war (the bit that trespassed into what is now “Korean” territory). It features Korean monks, a Japanese geomancer, some government officials, and the mountain I …