Well Murphy — that ever-present, relentless fuck (not Joe) — has enforced his law yet again. A bit of bad luck has derailed my plan for an on-time Deadpan release. I’ll update tomorrow to let you know if we’ll be a day late – or just have a Panless week. 🙁 Sorry, gang.
General
Jack Mangan Live, November 11
OK, this isn’t *the* huge major announcement, but it’s still a pretty cool thing:
I will be playing live acoustic guitar music at Jug N Barrel Wine Bar in Glendale, AZ (You can Google it – -Â too sleepy to post the link right now) —-
Saturday Nov. 11th from 7:30 until 10:30ish.
I played there once before, even broke Deadpan for vocals *gasp*. So if you can make it, then I’d love to see you there. I’ll try to post some of my setlist in the Show Comments discussion.
My essay for Meme Therapy
The crew at Meme Therapy invited me to answer a question for the Brain Parade section of their website. It was an honor to go overboard with my response:
http://memetherapy.net/27/has-science-fiction-had-an-impact-on-your-worldview/
Check it out; they also asked Christiana Ellis!
(Do memes need therapists?)
Interviewed on “Is Thing On?” Podcast
I’m really not all that interesting, but Dan Shaurette still saw fit to have me on the latest episode of his excellent, “Is This Thing On?” podcast. We spoke a lot about Deadpan, my writing, and my music – and he even played two of my songs on his show.
Many thanks to Dan Shaurette for having me on his show.
News Boxer
So, I haven’t been completely idle over the past few months. . . . here are some news items:
- 7th Son: Descent recap. J.C. Hutchins invited me to read a paragraph for him in “7th Son Book One: Descent” recap to launch the sequel, “7th Son Book Two: Deceit.” I’m there with some pretty esteemed company. Wow.
- Speaking of Beer appearance. Charlie the Beer Guy, everybody’s favorite beercaster and scholar, recently invited me to sample Oktoberfest beers with him on his podcast. It was a fun experience, and makes for a good listen.
- The force of nature that is WNDR Wolf has connected with the folks at ESC! Magazine’s Coffee House to Go, and they have posted his director’s cut audio drama of my short story, “Sixteen Pieces at a Time”.
And as unproductive as I’ve been of late, I still have more cool news items pending. And oh yeah — the haircut (i need to take more-detailed, less-sleepy photos):
16 Pieces at a Time, Director’s Cut
WNDRWolf, a good friend of mine and of the Deadpan, has created a 37:59 minute audio drama of my short story, “16 Pieces at a Time”. Long-time Deadpan listeners have heard the story in installments on my show — well now you can hear the entire thing in one file, plus a few extra goodies, hence the “Director’s Cut” label.
There are a lot of cool names in the credits, and I’m pretty proud to hear my story presented in this way. Thanks, Wolf.
Give the story a listen, give him a howl to tell him what a good job he did.
Top 30 in iTunes
OK, I posted something like this back in June. Interestingly, the list hasn’t changed that much. I’ll compare it to the Top Played list at home – should be interesting.
Feel free to paste your own lists – – or comment on mine.
Vanity Fair -Mr. Bungle 46
One With the Stillness -Jack Mangan 45
fear regret and hope -Jack Mangan 41
Myself Within Love -jack mangan 41
temple of earth and sea -jack mangan 41
Is There Love In Space? -Joe Satriani 39
Earth Time Pigs Fate -Jack Mangan 36
Wine -Jack Mangan 31
Organ Donor -DJ Shadow 28
Black Circle Remix -Jack Mangan 28
Dog Diary -Jack Mangan 28
playing with spiders-skullkrusher -Overkill 27
Saddam A Go-Go -GWAR 26
Slaughter of the Soul -At the Gates 25
Dad and Dog -Fredo Viola 25
Did My Time -KoRn 25
Miss Misery -Elliott Smith 23
Candles -Jack Mangan 23
Rumble -Link Wray & His Ray Men 23
Asteroid Speed Highway -Matt Mango 23
Tears of Liquid Mercury -Jack Mangan 22
Head Out To The Highway -Judas Priest 22
Spirit Man -Mango 22
Defender -Manowar 22
First Time Ever I Saw Your Face -Roberta Flack 22
Lost In Space -Aimee Mann 21
Waltz #2 (XO) -Elliott Smith 21
Microphone Fiend -Eric B & Rakim 21
Red Right Hand -Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds 21
West End Girls -Pet Shop Boys 21
Well said, Michael A. Stackpole
Subject: Concerning Disney’s 9/11 show
Hi,
The ABC television network–part of the Walt Disney corporation–unleashed a promotional blitz in the last week for a new “docudrama” called “The Path to 9/11”. ABC has thrown its corporate might behind the two-night production, and bills it as a public service: a TV event, to quote the ABC tagline, “based on the 9/11 Commission Report”. Part of their promotional campaign was to release the film in advance to right wing bloggers and pundits, like Rush Limbaugh, who have immediately hailed it as an unbiased look at the events leading up to 9/11.
You all know me to be a very careful writer who advocates doing a lot of research. In the area of 9/11 I have done just that, reading tons of books and articles about the history of Islamic Fundamentalism, the intelligence community and the various military and political campaigns waged since 9/11. (Yes, someday I’ll do a book…) I’ve actually shied from the partisan political stuff because I find the shrill rantings from either side too anoying to tolerate. And from my reading, there is no doubt that there were significant problems dealing with Islamic fundamentalism that dated from the founding of Saudi Arabia, and were exacerbated by our opposition to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
In short, there is plenty enough blame to go around, both for politicians and bureaucrats. I’d welcome a show that delves into all of this. A show based on the 9/11 commission report actually should do that. This is certainly what ABC has claimed about their show.
That’s a false claim. “The Path to 9/11” is a bald-faced attempt to revise history. And ust to make things more fun, they even slander Democrats right before Americans vote in a major election. One scene depicts the Clinton administration as refusing to okay a CIA hit on Osama bin Laden–showing CIA agents being outside a house where bin Laden was staying at the time they called for permission. Not only is that scene a complete fabrication, but in the 9/11 report and all of the histories I’ve read, the Clinton Administration repeatedly pushed the CIA for an operation, but CIA Director Tennent never gave his operatives the greenlight. (And for good reason: the closest they ever got to bin Laden was a plan to take out a compound where he was living with cruise missiles strikes, but that strike would have also killed the other people living there–mostly women and children.)
The miniseries, which was scripted by right-wing conservative writers, is the first salvo in the 2006 GOP campaign to terrorism to scare Americans. It irresponsibly misrepresents the facts and completely distorts the truth in an attempt to make you believe that a vote cast for a Democrat is signing a death warrant for your children, your church, you way of life and your nation. This is completely absurd and, as someone who loves the Constitution and hates seeing it being mangled by fear-mongers, I hope you’ll resist the message being pumped out as we approach the election.
But, first things first. Please join me in telling Walt Disney CEO Robert Iger to keep this propaganda off the air. We don’t need the memories and sacrifices of our fellow citizens being morphed into a partisan political event. Don’t let Mr. Iger turn Mickey Mouse into a rat; and don’t let him turn history into a malignant fantasy.
http://www.democrats.org/page/petition/pathto911/ftvrwv
Sincerely,
Michael A. Stackpole
http://www.stormwolf.com
Double Post: More on Shatnerhoff/Greasy Spoon Standings
OK, I almost got really indignant – – A vanity search for “Shatnerhoff” turned up a Hasselhoff blogsite referencing “The Shatnerhoff Theory”, based upon some article in the Toronto Sun. And no mention of Deadpan’s “Shatnerhoff Phenomenon”! It turns out, however, that the Toronto Sun article had published on August 15, and this blogger’s post had gone out on August 17. Deadpan 21 released on August 24, so they couldn’t have ripped me off. I certainly didn’t rip them off (I’d never steal someone else’s idea. I just wouldn’t.); it’s just a matter of timing. My skit and their article really only have the term, “Shatnerhoff” in common. Here is the link, but be warned; the page is topped with a disturbing picture of “The Hoff” in the buff, holding only a wrinkly dog to cover his KITT. NSFW, hell NSFAnywhere.
Hell, while we’re here – – let’s turn this into a double post.
The Greasy Spoon Contest Standings:
Jason C: 4
Alvie: 4
Andrea: 3
Ed from Texas: 2
Ditto: 2
Jeremy from Seattle: 1
JohnBoze: 1
Mark Forman, One Bad MF: 1
Rhettro: 1
A tie for first! Oh the tension! With 5 comment selections per episode, anyone can overtake them! Only three episodes to go! Hooray for exclamation points!
Signs of Witness
I thought this merited a main page post, but feel free to discuss in the Episode 21 comments conversation, if you feel so inclined. I’d definitely like to know if any of you guys submit your own Signs (Although someone already posted the Armor of God PJs. Sorry, ditto).
“You saw it the other day, the signs. There’ve been a lot of other things happening. A lot of things. There’s a Web site collecting them, signsofwitnessdotcom, go see for yourself.”
–from The Other End by John Shirley