Halloweensville 07

For most of my adult life Halloween has included three key elements:

1. Drinky
2. Fire
3. Ladies in flirtatious costume

(Yes, that’s Bruce Campbell and Highlander Me. On rare occasions Halloween has included unexpected unqualified coolness).

There are, of course, other benefits. Candy and Jackolanterns, for example, and loads of horror movies and fun parties. It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown… And these days there’s something new: theme-night trick-or-treating with the kids. Yes, for the second year in a row, we have a definite theme in mind for our costumes. I may decide to actually post a few photos of the entire fam, if only briefly. This year the theme is sort of mine, so I don’t mind so much, but I doubt the kids will stand for it when they get older. And the wife’s garb does qualify as flirtatious, so…

More Quality Podcasting

…from writers I can personally recommend.

This one courtesy of Mark V., who did a piece for the Chicago Public Radio show, Hello Beautiful. Linky.

Mark and other writers take a shot with stories named for the show. It’s part of the ‘Same Title, Different Story’ project. He’s up at about the 13 minute mark, part of Act II. Here’s the promotional photo:

Mark also has a new show at Donnie’s Skybox Theater in Chicago, called Blind Stinkin’, which is bound to be great fun–the kind of comedy you can sink those Halloween teeth into.

Behold! All Hallow’s

…Eve custom header! (If you follow the link to the blog site.)

Because at Beemsville, we care deeply about the traditional co-opted pagan holidays–especially this one.

As a bonus, and because it’s that time of year, check out this excellent Fighting Illini Bball team preview.

Review: Territory

by Emma Bull

 

Emma Bull’s Territory examines a famous moment of popular American history from a fascinating fictional perspective. A science-fictional (or maybe fantastical) perspective. The time is 1881; the place is Tombstone, Arizona.

Yeah, that Tombstone.

And here are the Earps and the Clantons about to draw down in legendary fashion. Here is a tall stranger named Jesse Fox, a rational man at odds with his own otherworldly potential. Here we have a young widow, Mildred, a typesetter and a burgeoning writer with keen wit and a sharp eye.

Doc Holiday joins Jesse and Mildred as the final POV character in this genre-melding story that has some Western, some Mystery, some Fantasy, definitely some Historical Fiction, and in the final analysis is just as skillfully written and entertaining yarn as you could hope for.

Back home on the prairie

When I travel on the airlines I tend to keep my expectations low. I figured today would be a success as long as I made it home, and with rain and clouds throughout the Midwest, I didn’t hold out much hope of arriving on time.

Well score one for air travel. No delays, no lost luggage, no problems with the TSAs. I guess I have to quit badmouthing Chicago O’Hare until the next time. Glad to be back home, and looking forward to all kinds of football this weekend.

• Can the Illini beat Michigan and avenge the demons of 2000? They can if they can pass it a little and regain some of that big-play swagger.
• Will I drink an appropriate level of beer? And who defines appropriate when the kids are along?
• Will the L.A. Galaxy complete their improbable run to the MLS playoffs? They have to beat the Fire this weekend and hope a couple of other teams lose. Don’t see it myself…

Mas Conan!

Read this article in USA Today about new Conan media available. To summarize:

• A new coffee table book from Dark Horse, Conan the Phenomenon
• An X-Box 360/PS3 video game
• An online RPG, Age of Conan, which may force me to break my self-imposed ban on MMORPGs
• A 543 page compilation of the old Marvel Savage Sword of Conan mags (yes, I’ll be buying this), also from Dark Horse
• A new movie “in development for 2009″. Of course lots of films are “in development”, and just before Arnold went for governor a lot of us in the geek mafia were pretty damned excited about the long rumored King Conan project, which never came to pass. I just hope they let Arnold do a cameo and bring back John Milius to co-write.

Blogging at you Live, from…

the Nation’s Capital:

Every once in awhile, the employer sends me on the road for various reasons. It’s usually a positive experience, even though I do not like being away from the fam for too long.

So this week Beemsville brings you the report, D.C. style. Don’t really know what that means, but I will tell you this: a coworker who had some experience with tours of the home office characterized it as a depressing place filled with angry people. I don’t know about that, but I will say the floors and floors of soulless linoleum and fluorescent lights leave something to be desired.

Everyone here is fairly well dressed though, I’ll give them that. And the architecture is pretty damned cool.

Want Some Radiohead?

Radiohead has released their newest album, In Rainbows. They’ve done it as a web-only thing, all on their own. Their own servers, their own secure download, their own pay interface.

That’s right: no record company or studio. No iTunes contract. You pay what you want, you get your download code. You can go here to begin the process.

Will be interesting to see how this goes for them. How many downloads, how much people pay. I doled out five pounds, but as I understand it, you name your price–kind of a web 2.0 honor system. I believe Stephen King tried something like this for a serialized book a few years back and decided it wasn’t worth it. The tech is better now though, and shopping online has become easier and less frightening (at least for the Radiohead demographic).

I likes me some Radiohead. Burning my new CD as I complete this post…

Real Work

Did some real work yesterday, and now I have the blisters and sore back to prove it. We’re trying to reclaim our yard from both general neglect and the scorching summer (which ain’t over yet–it was 89 yesterday). Sure, it was only a few hours of actual work but it was still pretty satisfying. Just another sign I’m getting old.  Used to be, I’d work pretty hard to avoid that kind of work.

Meanwhile, the Fighting Illini have worked their way into the Top 25 in football for the first time in years. Another home victory, this time over the somewhat overrated Badgers, and the bandwagon is officially open. I’m a pretty optimistic fan, but I hadn’t figured on a season like this one. Everyone should give the Zooker his due.

Book of the Month: Refresh, Refresh

…by Benjamin Percy

The month of October has it all: Halloween, Autumn, frost, and now Refresh, Refresh by Ben Percy. We at Beemsville are proud to designate it our Book of the Month. You can now find said book in finer booksellers across the nation, or just click on the picture above to buy online.