The Gspot - The Philosopher's Stone w/ Raymon Salvatore Harmon

In this very special edition of The GSpot, Joseph Matheny talks to Raymond Salvatore Harmon about the special release of his movie, The Philosopher's Stone on Greylodge as a torrent to be followed by a "Press to Play" version being released on Altertube.tv and Pilotlite.com, and then a podcast edition to be released on Alterati, Greylodge and Pilotlite. Joe and Ray discuss art on the fringe, how Ray came to film making, the Chicago art scene, and why the economy means nothing to artists working on the fringes.

(Check it out on Alterati.com.)

My 404

This past year has held a lot of changes and challenges for me. I broke up with my girlfriend of five years, (see? I told you I'd finally mention it publicly- no details though guys, LJdrama is so 1998), I'm working a full-time day job, I've put my non-or-little-paying creative projects on hiatus until I figure out what benefit I was actually providing to myself or others with them, I broke my almost year-long healthy streak with nearly two months of constant sinus infections, I'm gearing up for a move though I'm not 100% sure where to yet. And I'm falling in love.

Also, that was a really long sentence. Sorry about that, guys.

So, if you were actually wondering why the Fallen Nation audiobook is on hold, or why I haven't been running so many G-Spots lately, or so on, this is pretty much it. It's not that I've taken myself totally out of the game- I yam who I yam- but I realize I need to pull in a bit for a while, and not overcommit as I have so much in the past. Build a base, and then make decisions about where and how I want to spend my time and energy.

I am, however, completely open to suggestions from the peanut gallery on this matter, though I (as always) reserve the right to completely ignore everyone. It does help to know the things that I've done that have had an effect. So far Join My Cult! still seems to be in the lead on that account, if the number of "you changed my life!" emails from strangers is the metric. This is something I might have to work through in therapy someday. Or perhaps you all need therapy.

Until next time...

Words from an old Maverick

A word of advice to young writers out there: beware making your first a hallucinogen soaked, satirical, non-linear, generally plot-less nightmare. One day you might look back on it with a feeling of Jager-hangover nausea, and yet find that it continues to generally outsell later work that in your estimation better deserves the light of day.

Maybe at some point I'll do some colossal re-write of Join My Cult! and Fallen Nation for larger distribution. In the wake of some curious legal battles within the publisher of the former, re-gaining those rights would be easy. ("Easy" might not be the word, they've already been granted.)

More likely I'll run off to Thailand and say to hell with this writing thing.

In the meantime, for those of you who have read Join My Cult! but not the sequel- pony up. I don't even make a profit from those sales. I'll just sleep easier knowing there are people out there who still enjoy a plot along with their anarchy and group sex.

Scientists perfect memory-erasing

US researchers said they are able to selectively erase memories from mice in a laboratory, raising hopes human memory afflictions like post-traumatic stress syndrome can one day be cured.

"Targeted memory erasure is no longer limited to the realm of science fiction," the research team headed by Joe Tsien, from the Brain and Behaviour Discovery Institute at the Medical College of Georgia, said in the new issue of Cell Press magazine.

(News.com.au story.)

Great. One more things for schizophrenics to freak out about. I'm totally investing in aluminum foil.

Economic Tsunami (Clusterfuck nation)

"To switch metaphors, let's say that we are witnessing the two stages of a tsunami. The current disappearance of wealth in the form of debts repudiated, bets welshed on, contracts canceled, and Lehman Brothers-style sob stories played out is like the withdrawal of the sea. The poor curious little monkey-humans stand on the beach transfixed by the strangeness of the event as the water recedes and the sea floor is exposed and all kinds of exotic creatures are seen thrashing in the mud, while the skeletons of historic wrecks are exposed to view, and a great stench of organic decay wafts toward the strand. Then comes the second stage, the tidal wave itself--which in this case will be horrific monetary inflation--roaring back over the mud flats toward the land mass, crashing over the beach, and ripping apart all the hotels and houses and infrastructure there while it drowns the poor curious monkey-humans who were too enthralled by the weird spectacle to make for higher ground. The killer tidal wave washes away all the things they have labored to build for decades, all their poignant little effects and chattels, and the survivors are left keening amidst the wreckage as the sea once again returns to normal in its eternal cradle."

(Read full post on clusterfuck nation.)

Drunk For Your Amusement (pt 2)

My stomach still hurts from laughing. This weekend I saw Doug Stanhope at the Trocadero theatre, and I got exactly what I asked for- raw truth and bitterness,
served by a drunken lunatic.

Here are some of the thoughts I had when I first encountered his work. They still hold true, and I'm not a fan of regurgitation...

Read Review

Astrobase GO

Astrobase GO! (Venture Brothers, guessing Doc Hammer is primary on this one) release an album. I'm so getting this.

And stocks in aluminum foil skyrocket...

Oct. 13, 2008 -- Vocal cords were overrated anyway. A new Army grant aims to create email or voice mail and send it by thought alone. No need to type an email, dial a phone or even speak a word.
Known as synthetic telepathy, the technology is based on reading electrical activity in the brain using an electroencephalograph, or EEG. Similar technology is being marketed as a way to control video games by thought.
"I think that this will eventually become just another way of communicating," said Mike D'Zmura, from the University of California, Irvine and the lead scientist on the project.
"It will take a lot of research, and a lot of time, but there are also a lot of commercial applications, not just military applications," he said.

(Discovery Article).

What's more scary? This tech winding up in Army hands, or in the hands of advertisers?

Recent review of Fallen Nation: Babylon Burning

Modern Collective Unconscious by Amos Lassen

"Fallen Nation" is a trip like none you have ever taken. Paranoia is common, dreams haunt, and ends mean beginnings. The book explores modern culture and pays attention to hidden effects such as complacency, popular cynicism, and lack of diversity, escapism, and irony. The characters search for a better and more humane way of living. Several try to reform the obscure nature of what reality is and while doing so, they are forced to look at their own selves and the way they think and function.
It seems to me that the book is about becoming more individual and losing the belief that we all want to be like everyone else. Curcio shows what will happen if the infrastructure of our world crumbles. He gives no answers because there are none. This is a novel about warfare between and within cultures and knowing which battles are to be waged and which not.
Curcio's writing is unique and special and really fun to read. He is not always easy to understand but, once read, he brings us great rewards."

Order
Fallen Nation: Babylon Burning on Amazon.com

Free stuff at esozone!

A selection of Mythos Media & Immanion Press products will be offered in a raffle at Esozone, the occulture / fringe art event occuring now in Portland.

Too Clever By Half

"I'd like to share a film with you that I think is, on the whole, highly underrated. "Too clever by half," as a friend of mine put it. That film is Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang.

But before I discuss the movie directly, let me unpack the idiom. Many people seem to feel that if something is "too" clever, "too" smart, it's an affront to their common sense, an assault upon their salt-of-the-earth dignity. I don't know if this belief carries across cultural boundaries, but it seems endemic enough in the states that it even determines the results of elections. The Republican party has made this issue a corner-stone of their assault upon the "liberal elite," a fact well recognized and explored by Sorkin's own "too clever by half" drama, The West Wing.

I'm not entirely sure when being witty became a negative, frankly I don't care. Maybe this just makes me another member of the "liberal elite." But if you're not offended by self-aware satire and snarkiness, you'll likely find Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang one of the most entertaining, funny movies you've seen."

(Read review on TLAblog)