My eyes are filled with gods

Today is the Winter Solstice. It is a sadness that the clouds and snow hid last night’s full moon lunar eclipse, but what else can we expect from Indiana in the winter? In any case, break out the pomegranates and wine, the red ribbons, Lucia candles, Krampus switches and wassail!  The days get longer from here on out. Someday, rumor has it, we’ll even get to see that big ol’ fireball in the sky again.

To celebrate, here is a pretty, pretty thing: Yoshitaka Amano‘s upcoming anime, Deva Zan (courtesy of W.). I am full of want.

So I’ve been getting CRK’s Sirenia Digest for the last couple of months. It’s a monthly PDF containing new short stories and/or vignettes, written, produced, and disseminated by one of my favorite authors. (In addition to all the other writing projects she has going at any given moment.)

Last month I wrote a review of sorts for FlamesRising.com. I’m not a literary critic by any means … but I do love CRK’s writing.  And I still find myself waking up thinking about “John Four” at least once or twice a week. Apparently that story really struck a chord. I suspect I ought to be very worried about that.

Lest I forget: a linkdump collection, mostly by way of Terling. (Thank you!)

• Cosmopolitan Cranberry Sauce – Yum.
• Spice Merchants – Ooh, look at the blends …  whole bean coffee & cardamom? Hmm.
• Teavana – Matcha powder!

Carry on.

I love this sentiment:

Your life is hell right now, but one day you will walk out of the gates of that hell with its fire in your heart, and you will burn brighter than any star in all the fucking heavens. And you will join us as we take the fucking future. Because nothing, nothing can stand against that flame that is the human spirit.

Hal Duncan, from his contribution to the It Gets Better Project.  Very NSFW (language).

Looking forward to this one: pretty girls, a fairly significant Girls Underground theme, ‘splosions and reality deviants. (Why yes, that is the Silversun Pickups’ “Panic Switch” in the trailer. How clever of you to notice!)

This is what shinies are made of.

Maybe I’ll even venture out to a theater again for it.  Hey, anything’s possible…

It’s a Zack Snyder film, but that doesn’t mean much to me, since I haven’t seen anything of his other offerings besides his Dawn of the Dead remake. All I really remember about that is the opening sequence in the suburbs and the zombie baby, so here’s hoping this one’s more memorable.

Almost forgot … I wanted to post a link to Katelan Foisy’s work-in-progress painting, Hela, a portrait of the Norse goddess of the dead (some of them, anyway).

Hel is traditionally described as being half flesh and half dead, with the dead portion variously skeletal, black or blue depending on the story and the teller. She is a daughter of Loki,  sister to Fenris and Jörmungandr, and will bring her dead to Ragnarok to join Loki’s army against the gods.

I don’t believe Hel is ever accused of being kind or warm in the old stories (more often bitter and gloomy; she mostly gets those who did not die in battle, after all) but Katelan’s rendering is lovely and gentle. I hope she posts the finished work when it’s done.

Still can’t shake the sinus headache, so mostly I just have a video to share today, found via GaS.  8BITS is a strangely nostalgic short, at least for me:  part Nightmare before Christmas, part platformer mash-up, part Little Big Planet, part Matrix. No, really. Have a look.

Additional videos that have amused me in the last week or so:

• Llamas with Hats 1-3 (courtesy of R.)
• Cthulhu Old Spice (courtesy of R. and H.)
• OkGo: White Knuckles. Still not a big fan of their music, but I’ll admit to being a fan of their videos nonetheless. They continue to amaze with their one-take process, particularly since this vid involves dog wrangling.

In other news, Mabon is this Wednesday, the 22nd.  In all honesty, I’m not particularly demonstrative when it comes to my practice, and prefer to mark the days of the Wheel simply — by making a point to enjoy whatever food I associate most with the season. For me, Mabon means apples and spiced cider and apple butter and … you get the idea.

Soon the air will turn chilly, and the sun will retreat behind the perma-shroud that is the winter sky in Indiana.  Mabon is my reminder to pause and appreciate this season before it flashes past, to admire its beauty and enjoy the last few days of summer as they trail into autumn.

Ending on another happy note, my good friend Monica pointed out an awesome new review for her Queen of Crows eBook (which is on sale again for $2.99):

Excellent story, great art, and I absolutely loved the idea of the “DVD Extra’s” like bonus features. This just screams “fearless author” to me, someone who’s not afraid to say “here’s my story, here’s my inspiration, here’s some character notes, and here’s an early draft so you can see how far it’s come.”

Absolutely intrigues me with the authors Violet Wars world setting and her other works of fiction. Well worth the price; would highly recommend.

S. Jarjoura

If you’ve not yet bought your copy, I encourage you to do so. We put a lot of work into the project, and I’m delighted the response has been so good.

Author Caitlin R. Kiernan has been doing an intriguing series of posts on her blog showcasing music videos that embrace the unexplainable story nature of weird fiction. She’s chosen some stellar examples, to be sure. (Visit her “weird fiction” tag page for viewing and commentary.)

Those who have made the list so far:

1. Placebo – “Pure Morning”
2. Radiohead – “Just”
3. Bjork – “Oceania”
4. Damien Rice – “9 Crimes”
5. Fever Ray – “If I Had a Heart”
6. Radiohead – “Karma Police”
7. Tool – “Prison Sex”
8. NIN – “The Perfect Drug”
9. Depeche Mode – “The Perfect Caress”
10. I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness – “The Owl”
11. Aphex Twin – “Come to Daddy”

We never had cable, growing up, so it’s only been with the advent of YouTube that I’ve seen much in the way of videos. I’d seen two of these before, but it’d been so long, I’d forgotten them.

Interestingly, numbers 7, 10 and 11 reminded me of a couple of very specific Edige games — 7 and 10 made me think of Wayward nearly instantly, with a very distinct and terrible Keeper/Changeling vibe to them. “Come to Daddy” felt very much like a mashup of  ”City of Ocean” and John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness.  /shudder

And really, is I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness not the best band name ever? I’m really looking forward to more of these posts; I’d never heard them or Damien Rice before, so it will be interesting to see what else she comes up with.

If you’re a fan of weird fiction, please do go and watch the vids.

Kotaku.com posted the track list for for Rock Band 3. It boils down into three nearly-even categories for me:

1. Yay! Also, … what took so freaking long?
   INXS, Echo & the Bunnymen, Primus, Metric, “Been Caught Stealing,” “The Beautiful People,” etc.
2. Really …? You hate us that much? (Yes. Turns out they do.)
   Amy Winehouse, Huey Lewis & the News, Night Ranger, etc.
3. … Who? Wellllll … all right. We’ll try it. I mean, maybe you’ll introduce me to the next Silversun Pickups …

There are more than a few questionable choices, IMO, but I guess we’ll see. Some will undoubtedly be fun just by sheer dint of pushing the ridiculousity envelope.

Remember The Queen of Crows? The historical/mythic fiction e-book Monica Valentinelli released in March?  The one that gave me an excuse to play Editor and Layout Artist?  Well, she’s working on an updated version that should be available soon.

Also, I may be slightly biased, but The Monica’s promo video is pretty cool. Check it out: