- Been re-watching LOST in anticipation of the final season. Finished off Season 1, then decided to jump straight to Season 5 presuming these two will be the most relevant to Season 6. I’m still impressed with how well the time travel was handled in a “Whatever Happened, Happened” sort of way last year. Biggest hindsight observation from the first season is the all-knowingness that surrounded Locke for the first 18 episodes or so. The writer in me wonders if the revelation that ended last season was considered early on, abandoned when they mapped out the full arc of the character, and is now being revisited as part of the endgame…
- Also LOST related: The Trickshot posted a 4-part series of “Lost Vignettes” during the recent hiatus between chapters, chronicling a time traveler’s attempts to view the final season early. Check them out here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.
- “Dinosaurs Were Made Up By The CIA to Discourage Time Travel” is an awesome song title, but the music doesn’t really do it for me.
- The upcoming movie Hot Tub Time Machine has a pretty cool URL for their website: kicksomepast.com
Ramblings IV
January 17th, 2010Of The Year – 2009
December 24th, 2009I’ve always wanted to “officially” track a best of the year music list, and figured here would be the most appropriate place to do it.
1. Sad Man Happy Man — Mike Doughty
I had huge expectations going in after an interview said this would sound like Skittish & Rockity Roll, and Doughty delivered in spades. My sister calls it “Soul Coughing Unplugged” which is a decent description. Just Doughty doing what he does best and knocking it out of the park.
2. Dark Night of The Soul — Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse
The Wilco-esque tale of an album that nearly wasn’t might give this bonus points, but regardless it’s still a masterpiece. Still a little odd when I get caught singing the song with my own name in it though…
3. Far — Regina Spektor
I’ve always kinda liked Regina, but now I love her. Heck of a live performance too.
4. Monsters of Folk — Monsters of Folk
Supergroups are tough. Always the best intentions, but hard to pull off. This one is greater than the sum of its parts. I especially loved the unexpected electronic feel to the lead track, defying expectations from the start and inviting a closer listen.
5. Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes — Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes
A fun, whimsical, magical mystery ride. Much respect for an album that name-drops a Beatles song while really deserving it as a descriptor.
$14.50 – $1.45 = $13.05 in December
December 9th, 2009Lulu.com is running a holiday promotion. Use coupon code HUMBUG at checkout to get 10% off your order on anything, including the Timely Persuasion paperback. Valid through December 30th.
Not only do you get to go back in time, but you can also go back in price!
(Yup. That was a terrible joke. But I liked it…)
Bonus fun fact: I didn’t make up the coupon code, but it’s interesting that it quotes Ebenezer Scrooge from A Christmas Carol, considered by some to be the first published time travel story in 1843. This classic gets a minor nod in Chapter 9 of TP, one of many hat tips to other time travel tales.
Ziggy for iPhone
November 28th, 2009I knew it was only a matter of time. Previously I’ve wished for an iPhone app that emulates the handlink from Quantum Leap. I even had Al using an iPhone-based Ziggy in my fanfic story for the Leap Back Convention, “Just Like Starting Over.”
Ask and ye shall receive:
Ziggy for iPhone & iPod Touch
The game itself is just sort of ok, but the sound effects and the fact that it’s ZIGGY more than make up for it. If you’re a time travel nut like me, Ziggy says there’s a 96.8% chance you’ll want to install this app.
And in other time-travel iPhone news, check out:
This one tells you where you're going, this one tells you where you are, this one tells you where you were.
DeLorean Time Circuits (iTunes Link)
eBook Price Unification
November 18th, 2009After realizing that my eBook prices were starting to be all over the map, I decided to do something about it. Now all eBook editions of Timely Persuasion share the same $1.99 price tag.
(My future self tells me this is a great deal. He also says thank you for buying one and he’s glad you liked it.)
Check them out in your preferred eReader format below:
PDF*
Amazon Kindle
Barnes & Noble Nook
Smashwords (Sony, Palm, ePub, RTF, etc.)
*Note that due to eBook formatting variations, only the PDF includes Mike Doughty’s handwriting.
And for those who prefer good old fashioned paper for $15 (+/-):
Amazon.com
IndieBound
Lulu.com
Last but not least…
There’s still the free online edition at reader.timelypersuasion.com.
Please enjoy!
Halloween
October 31st, 2009Guess who?
(Yes, I know the beard is lacking.)
Mike Doughty’s Hand(writing)
October 18th, 2009Had a couple of recent questions about the font on the setlists in the paperback, which caused me to realize I never blogged about the origin of that in any detail. Could have sworn I did, but a quick scan of the archives proves otherwise. Here we go:
Once upon a time a designer named Chank Diesel put together something called the Rockstar Font Project. He basically took handwriting samples from musicians and turned them into fonts. Participants included Mike Doughty from Soul Coughing, Kelley Deal from the Breeders, Steven Drozd from the Flaming Lips, Mark Sandman from Morphine, and Everlast from House of Pain.
Being a big Soul Coughing fan I downloaded the Mike Doughty “Wichita” font shortly after it came out, messed around with it for 10 minutes, and then forgot all about it since I didn’t really have a practical use for it. (Origin story in Chank’s own words is available at WBR.com)
Mike Doughty's Handwriting, Ghostwriting for Local Boy
Flashforward a decade. While working on the remastered layout of Timely Persuasion with Bryan Davidson we hit upon this idea of doing the Local Boy setlists in a handwriting font. Originally we tried the Apple “Marker Felt” font, but it felt sort of cheesy and overplayed. I suddenly remembered Wichita, and miraculously managed to copy it over each time I switched computers over the years.
I emailed Mr. Diesel regarding permissions and he was super cool about it, as was Mr. Doughty when I let him know of his inspiration. And there you have it.
While we’re on the subject of Mike Doughty, check out his amazing new album Sad Man Happy Man. I know this sounds odd coming on the heels of my Benji Hughes post, but this is another of those rare, expectation-defying albums I just can’t get enough of. Beats out Dark Night of the Soul for my album of the year crown, and when the newness clears might even give Skittish a run for its money on the “best album ever” front.
All About The Benji Hughes
October 3rd, 2009Every once in a great while a record comes around that just plain blows your mind. One that lands in heavy rotation, building up steam and momentum with each listen. You may like or even love other albums, but the magical ones like this are few and far between. Music so good you can’t stop listening to it and feel the need to tell everyone you know about it. CDs that make you think “Where the hell have I been?” upon discovering that it has existed for months or years without your knowledge.
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is an easy example from recent memory.
Skittish meets this criteria too. It was (and still is) my favorite album of all time.
Before that it was probably Slanted and Enchanted.
Before that it was Nevermind.
Today? It’s A Love Extreme by Benji Hughes.
Check this out. How awesome is this guy?
Benji Hughes – A Love Extreme – About The Album
Just, wow! A little bit Beck, a little Joseph Arthur, but at the same time a whole lot of original.
Anachronistic as it is, I can’t help but reference the lyrical gold that might have found its way into Timely Persuasion had this album been around a few years ago.
“A woman lives inside of your head, singing to you all of the time.”
“I’m into Pavement their my favorite band I’ve got their DVD I watch it 50 times…”
“You’ve got it made because you’re made so well.”
“Why do these parties always end the same way?”
“Just like really awesome candy.”
“I got there at 4:53. We were supposed to meet at 5.”
Soooo good! Definitely my find of the year.
Email of the Day
September 17th, 2009
Game Show
September 13th, 2009
Last weekend I was the guest contestant for the premiere episode of Coverville: Musically Challenged, the quiz show style spin-off to Brian Ibbott’s popular Coverville cover song podcast. We gave away copies of Timely Persuasion to lucky winners, did a brief interview, and then I was challenged with a special trivia category called “Everyday I Write the Book.”
Being a huge fan of Coverville (as well as a proud Citizen), it was both an honor and a thrill to be a part of this. Despite a few nervous jitters I had a lot of fun. Held my own on the question round too aside from a couple of brain freezes. Let’s just say I’m more into time travel than vampires…
Listen to the show here:
Musically Challenged 001: Crackermic
Thanks to Brian for inviting me!
And one last note that didn’t make it into the interview:
Coverville gets a brief mention in Chapter 17 of Timely Persuasion as the working title of an album from the 1970s, which leads to an age old time travel causation puzzle. Was the album named after the podcast, or was the podcast named after the album?
Hmmm…
