Archive for June, 2008
Pegritz Joins We♥Music
June 28th, 2008
I’m very proud to announce that I’ve been asked to join the gang at We♥Music as a music reviewer. Don’t worry—The Friday Fivehead will continue as well: I just haven’t posted it as regularly because I’ve been incredibly busy with the ol’ job-search thang these last few weeks.
Writing for We♥Music is a great opportunity to introduce folks to new music as well as inform younger readers about older musical works that they should check out. I remember when I was but a stripling in the early 1980s, discovering oldskool doo-wop, The Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley, and Marvin Gaye via MTV, 3WS (a Pittsburgh-based oldies radio station), and my mom’s old LP collection. Today, the Internet makes it easier than ever for people to discover both new jams and classic works—and I’m greatly looking forward to spreading the joy of music through We♥Music as well as my current efforts!
Prince, You Are A Class-A Asshole
June 26th, 2008
So. Let’s say that you’re a very well-known musician and songwriter who shot to prominence in the 1980s because of your amazing ability to write extremely funky, catchy music that appealed to listeners all across the musical spectrum of taste. Come the early ‘90s, though, you’d prettymuch run out of steam…so, to give your career a boost and protest the draconian contract you stupidly signed with one of the worst record labels in history, you changed your name to a symbol and spent a few years producing extremely sub-par records that virtually nobody gave a shit about. Then, several years later…well, what have we here? You reassumed your name and actually began to make something of a comeback, putting out a number of very good albums that hearkened back to your seminal ‘80s work. These albums were so good, in fact, that your name began to be bandied about in public again by a whole new generation of fans and your place in the History of Rock was prettymuch assured.
Now, let’s say that you’re turning 50 this year. In honor of your June 7th birthday, a Norwegian label brought together a number of artists to produce a tribute album: a massive five-disc set of 81 covers of your music. The record label then contacted you to offer you a free copy of the album out of good faith. What do you do?
Do you:
A. Graciously accept the album and tell the label that you’re extremely flattered.
B. Accept the album, but explain to the record label that by law you should’ve been reimbursed the compulsory license fee of ~10cents per song, which the label did not pay, citing that “they didn’t think they owed Prince anything except maybe a free copy.” Oh well, it’s no big deal, ultimately, because you’re already fabulously wealthy and, hey, it’s nice to be appreciated.
C. Whine like a bitch and file lawsuits against every artist who participated in the album AND demand that all copies of the tribute album be destroyed.
If you’re a petulant little asshole named Prince, you choose C.
Prince is no stranger to suing anyone and everyone who does something with his music that he does not like. Admittedly, it’s his music, after all, and ultimately it should be his right to decide what’s done with it—but that kind of thing only goes so far, especially today in the first true blossoming of the Information Age.
Before I rip him a new purple anus for being a complete tool, let me pause to reaffirm something already mentioned: the Norwegian label, C+C Records (not C+C Music Factory) was clearly in the wrong by not paying the licensing fee for the songs that were covered for the tribute. However, to quote the above-linked Wired article,
To sell their five-disc set of 81 Prince cover songs, they would have to remit around $8 per unit sold to Prince, under a compulsory mechanical license.
OK, so the label owed Prince a bit fat $8 for each copy of the album sold. They did not pay that, which means that Prince has a perfectly legal basis for suing the label.
But…why the hell would he even bother?
First of all, Princey, you’re already rolling in money. You really are not going to starve anytime soon if you don’t get the approximately $40,000 owed to you by C+C Records. I’m sorry that you won’t be able to buy another SUV this year with all the cash C+C owes you, but, really…by this point in your life, $40K is chump-change.
Second, this label and the fifty artists who participated in the tribute created the album to honor you, because they love your material and they wanted to say, “Hey, Prince…you’re Totally Awesome and we want to give you props for being a Major League artist.”
So congratulations, bucko: you’ve just alienated even more fans. Do you or do you not realize that the only reason you’re swimming in money and playing Half-Time at the Super Bowl is because of your fanbase? You do understand, too, that you have fans in other countries, right? Yes, fans buying your albums have made you richer than I could ever hope to be…but those fans have given you something much more valuable and longlasting than money: reputation.
You are a titan of musical talent, even if you barely come up to my shoulder. You are an amazing songwriter, and amazing musician, and just an amazing person. But guess what? Turning into Mr. Lawsuit Frenzy is also making you out to be an amazing asshole.
People do not like artists with egos so big they believe they can attack their fans and their fans will still lick up everything they produce.
Money can last forever. But once you’re branded a Major Dick—like a certain has-been metal band—you’ll find that the reputation that you’ve spent decades working on has gone. And once your posterity’s gone, all you’ve got left is a few million dollars to pay for a lavish funeral once you croak. After which, you will be promptly forgotten.
This post courtesy of ScribeFire.
June 15th, 2008
Over the last few years, since starting my very first WordPress blog–the one you’re reading right now, in fact–I’ve used a number of different methods to post content to WordPress: everything from WP’s built-in editor (both WYSIWYG and straight HTML) to a number of different third-party tools. My two favorite methods have been WP’s own editor, of course, and Microsoft’s stunningly useful Windows Live Writer. MS gets a lot of flack–a lot of it warranted–concerning the company’s less-than-stellar support for web standards and even lessER-than-stellar web tools (uhhh, Windows FrontPage, anyone?). But not only has Microsoft finally taken steps to fix its “web image” by producing Internet Explorer 7 and the Dreamweaver-trouncing Expression Web, it’s made up for a lot of sins with the very popular and almost universally-applauded Live Writer.
One of the posting apps I’d tried and discarded in the past was the Firefox extension Performancing. It was very simple, very easy to use, and very basic…too basic, in fact: it lacked support for a lot of WordPress features or writing methods that I used frequently. Now, several years later, the extension has been renamed ScribeFire, has undergone a great deal of development, and is drawing better reviews than ever. So, I thought I’d take a second look at the browser-based publishing platform and see if it gives Windows Live Writer a run for its money. In fact, I’m writing this post in ScribeFire as a means of testing it out!
In short: though ScribeFire has some very nice features and has grown by leaps and bounds since it was known as Performancing, the same damned limitations that turned me away from it before are still freakin’ there.
First, the good. A single click on the ScribeFire icon in the Firefox status bar brings the blog editor right up, and one can also right click anywhere on a webpage to “Blog this page,” bookmark the page using del.icio.us, or load up more info about the page via Technorati. The post editor now supports multiple tabs so you can work on several entries at once, and, of course, features both a WYSIWYG and HTML editor. Some cool additions to the WYSIWYG editor are the “Insert a special character” button which allows you to add áççèñtëð characters of various sorts, plus buttons to let you directly insert graphics from Flickr and videos from YouTube.
The interface is divided into two panes: the left for composing, and the right for such things as selecting which of your many blogs you want to post to, setting categories, and so forth. The neatest feature of the right pane is that it provides you with a list of the last fifty-or-so post you’ve made to your blog, which lets you quickly copy titles and URLs if you do a lot of referncing other entries on your blog. The right pane also allows you to easily insert Technorati tags to an entry and enable pings to services like Technorati and Ping-O-Matic. The left pane also features a “Promote” tab which lets you share pages via such popular social-media sites as Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Newsvine, and even Facebook.
So, in regard to those various tools, ScribeFire has come a looooooong way. Any blog editor should give users extended character support (I mean, how many actually know the “&whatever;” codes for things such as M-dashes, etc.?), and the entry catalog is no doubt a godsend to cross-referencers.
But.
Now, keep in mind, the following is 100% subjective. Chances are, if all you need is a simple program that lets you conveniently publish stuff to your blog, ScribeFire is just as good as Windows Live Writer or, for that matter, WordPress’s own editor. My needs, however, are a little more specialized. They’re not extremely outré or rarified by any means, but there are certain things that I look for in a blogging program that ScribeFire has never had and, probably never will.
One is an easy way to remove hyperlinks. See the link to del.icio.us a paragraph of two above? It doesn’t need to be there. I simply made that link to see whether I could easily remove it. By removing it easily, I mean that I should be able to click a single button or do a single simple action to remove it. Right-click a link in Windows Live Writer and you’re presented with an option to remove the link. Highlight linked text in WordPress’s native editor and click the link button, erase the URL from the popup window, and the link is gone. Those are actions as simple and as quick as highlighting text, clicking the link button, and making a link in the first place.
However, removing links in ScribeFire ain’t that easy. One way to remove a link is to switch to HTML view and remove the <a> tags. If you highlight linked text and just click the link button and simply erase the URL text, the link will remain after you click OK. That’s just stupid. Another way to get rid of a link is to highlight the linked text and click the “Strip formatting” button. Wait–a link is considered formatting? Ummm, technically it is…but how many of you think “link” when someone mentions “formatting?” Italicized text, font face, size, and color changes, indents, etc…everyone will recognize that as formatting, but links? Yes, the “Strip formatting” button is right next to the “Add A Link” button…but there’s a divider between the two. The “Strip formatting” button is in its own little section with “Increase Font Size” and “Decrease Font Size” buttons. There’s no visual or semantic reason to associate “Strip formatting” with “Add A Link.”
Also, ScribeFire’s WYSIWYG editor is extremely clumsy. Unlike literally every other WYSIWYG editor on Earth, including WordPress’s own native Tiny-MCE-based WYSIWYG editor, you can’t italicize text by hitting ctrl+I, or bold by hitting ctrl-B. The only way to italicize text is to highlight it and click the “Italicize” button. And here’s where it gets weird: the “Italicize” button uses oldskool HTML <i> tags, rather than the more common XHTML <em> tags…but there is another button further down the bar that lets you “Emphasize” text with <em> tags. That’s just needlessly confusing.
Finally on the tag/formatting front…everytime you start a new paragraph, ScribeFire doesn’t automatically add <p> tags. Strange.
Scribefire also does not support WordPress excerpt text, and, apparently, doesn’t publish Technorati tags even when you add them. I am editing this paragraph in WordPress itself after having published the post, and…well, you don’t see any of the usual Technorati tags at the bottom of this post, do you? That’s a BIG strike in my book.
Oh, and one last thing. Yes, this is a very niggling little matter, but hey–I use the M-dash a lot. It’s part of my style. But guess what character the “Insert a special character” button does not give you access to? Every other imaginable character is featured but that one. EDIT: Apparently, WordPress itself renders the oldskool “two-hyphen” method of representing an M-dash as an actual M-dash. Huh. Well, I guess you learn somethin’ new everyday….
Ultimately, it’s silly oversights like a missing M-dash character, a missing “Remove link” button or something similar, and the utterly needless separation of <i> and <em> tags that just make ScribeFire seem like a cheap, hastily-thrown-together app. Yeah, it’s free…but so is WordPress itself. And Windows Live Writer. You can do so much more, so much more easily with those other apps that ScribeFire just comes across as limited and–even worse–limiting.
But hey…if your needs are simple–and I do mean simple–then ScribeFire may just be the blog-poster-thingee you’ve been looking for!
The Friday Fivehead: Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, U2, Thompson Twins, Barry White, Huang Chung
June 13th, 2008
Aaaaaaaand…we’re back. That’s right—after two weeks’ hiatus, The Friday Fivehead is back with some phat jams to stuff in ya ears! Sorry I’ve been gone for a bit, folks: I was too busy fixing my other website, Footnotes to the Human Species, to really spend the time necessary to crank out a batch of music reviews. Well, that project’s done now, and it’s time to get back to the task at hand. Okay?
This week’s going to be another “theme week,” of sorts. It’s a bit of a “ripper’s delight," as it were, because recently I spent a few hours ripping a mess of old CDs that I haven’t listened to in quite some time…so in many ways, this Friday Fivehead is going to be somewhat of an all-retro edition—because some of these CDs date back to the early ’80s! I haven’t listened to any of them in quite some time—their jewelcases were all dusty and one of ‘em even had a dead bug in it—so the question is: how have these particular records stood the test of time? Well, let’s see….
To start with, here’s a name you don’t hear much anymore: Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. Oh, they’re still around—in fact, they just released a new album, Strength & Loyalty, last year that’s full of pretty big-name guests like Mariah Carey and Akon—but after Bizzy Bone’s departure, the group’s name just hasn’t been dropped as often as it was in the past. I’d picked up their double-disc Greatest Hits collection prettymuch just for "Tha Crossroads" and "1st Of Tha Month," and haven’t listened to it since I got it…mainly because I lost it in my car and just recently rediscovered it. The two discs are packed with great tracks, though, all of which naturally feature the Cleveland crew’s distinctive, lovely harmonies and rapidfire lyrics over laid-back beats. As a "Greatest Hits" compilation, it’s kind of weird, because some of these tracks a really obscure—but as a collection of superior tracks from all of their previous albums, Greatest Hits is an excellent summary of their career up to 2004. Bone Thugs-N-Harmony have always been a unique voice in the world of gangsta rap and hip-hop in general: though their lyrics deal with the usual thuggin’, druggin’ and whatnot, their delivery of those lyrics is completely unique, combining lightning-fast rhymes and soulful harmonizing straight out of the best of Motown. Even songs glamourizing the rough, razoredged thug life such as "Thug Mentality" and their breakout jam, "Thuggish Ruggish Bone," sound like silky ’70s soul. Weed odes such as "Buddah Lovaz" and "Blaze It" are so plush and smokey (as in Robinson) you’ll literally get a buzz just listening to them. Despite their gangsta orientation, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony make beautiful music that exemplifies all the best that hip-hop and contemporary soul can be. This is a must-have collection for fans and a great start for Bone Thugs virgins. Just be prepared to get a lot of strange looks if you’re a skinny white guy like me singing along in the car to "1st Of Tha Month" when you’re stopped at a light.
Now. U2. Yeah, you know them. The band that produced international spokesjerk Bono and somehow managed to transform from one of the ’80s best rock bands into some kind of overblown megapop group that shits out crappy music that goes platinum even though it can’t hold a candle to their earlier work. And the album War is the best of that earlier work. Best known for its incredible singles "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "New Years Day," War is an album that it damnear perfect from track one to track ten. Back in the day, U2 was a political post-punk rock band whose memorable lyrics and striking melodies drew warranted international acclaim. Hum the piano line to "New Years Day" and chances are anyone my age or thereabout—mid-30s—will immediately recognize the song. Yes, it’s that iconic. "New Years Day" and "Sunday Bloody Sunday" were bloody ubiquitous on college radio in the mid-’80s, but no matter how many times you heard the songs, you never grew tired of them…because they were just such great damn jams. The Edge’s lead guitar work was not exceptional, but it was masterful, and Bono’s lyrics were sharp and his voice powerful. This was a New Wave album that crossed over to become a no-holds-barred rock n’ roll hit…and it deserved the reputation, not only for calling international attention to the horrors happening in northern Ireland but for being an exemplary example of music that can have a message but still be eminently danceable. "Protest music" usually doesn’t aim to get people stomping and pumping their fists in the air, but "Sunday Bloody Sunday" does just that. "Seconds" is a thoroughly bouncy little number whose prominent bassline never fails to get my booty moving. "Drowning Man" is simply a gorgeous song whose guitars shimmer like golden rain falling on the grave of Cuchulain. Once, U2’s music was powerful and poignant, both lyrically and musically. What the hell happened to them? Success. The success of this album and, later, The Joshua Tree. I’m usually not one to turn my back on a band just because suddenly they become "popular"—hell, I love to see obscure backwater bands break through to the mainstream!—but if the success goes to their heads and destroys their music, well…."I can’t close my eyes and make it go away" prettymuch says it all, sadly.
Now for a band whose success didn’t ruin them: Thompson Twins! Into the Gap was the band’s seventh album. Got that? Seventh. From 1981 through 1991, they released eleven albums, more than one a year! But this particular album is the one that always comes to mind whenever anyone mentions the Thompsons, and for good reason: it’s by far their best, most ambitious, and most creative work. The album not only features the iconic, “Doctor, Doctor” and “Hold Me Now,” two of the most iconic songs of the ‘80s, but is bursting with incredible material that mixes synths with “real” instruments—particularly percussion—to create songs that are catchy, fun, and clever…but, at the same time, dark and brooding. For every light-drenched “Hold Me Now” there’s a "No Peace For The Wicked," which is one of my alltime favorite songs for its ominous themes and its wave-your-hands-in-the-air breakdowns. For every "You Take Me Up" there’s a "Sister of Mercy," a beautiful synthpop ballad dedicated to a woman who kills her abusive husband. The title track, however, is the album’s highpoint—yes, higher even than "Hold Me Now"—with its fierce Eastern melody and industrial electronics. "Into The Gap" sounds like a more pop-friendly Cabaret Voltaire, or a lightweight Front Line Assembly. Its message of borderless globalism is expressed perfectly in its exotic rhythms and scales, but at no point does the song stray from its solid dancefloor ethic. This is the kind of jam that gets people grooving at goth clubs, ’80s nights, and raves alike. There’s only one thing that could make this album better than it is: a good contemporary remastering. Like many albums that were recorded before 1988 or ‘89, the tracks sound thin and quiet on CD—you’ve really gotta crank up your speakers to let ‘em pound with this record as they would with Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. But, hey, it’s only inevitable. A remaster could hit the shelves or the Internet at any time…but don’t wait. If you haven’t heard this album yet, get it, even if you have to do some speaker-tweakage to get the full effect of it. You will be blown away regardless.
OK, now take a moment and look at the cover art to Mister Barry White’s 1973 masterpiece Stone Gon’. What the hell is going on there? I see Barry White sitting at a white piano and there is, of course, a lady sitting on it, along with a rose…but in the background…is that the planet from Enemy Mine? Could Barry White be crooning to a Drac? The world…will never know. But there’s one thing you will know: this album is a dream come true—an explosion of soulful sensuality so intense it’s actually better than sex. Yeah, I said it. Man or woman, if you don’t spontaneously get off while listening to this album, you must be an asexual paramecium. What makes this particular album so grand is that it is at once spontaneous and immediate, yet also meticulous and oh-so-carefully-crafted. The songs are long—"You’re My Baby" clocking in at almost ten minutes—but never boring, because of White’s extended, sensual monologues that preface the lyrics and sound as though White is right there talking to someone he loves. NOBODY is smoother than Barry White, vocally and musically. Though the vocals are obviously the most prominent element on any track, the music behind them is so deftly arranged and orchestrated that it envelopes White’s voice like flowing, rippling satin sheets. And somehow—somehow—Barry White manages to be both soft and loving and stank n’ funkay at the exact same time on the album closer, the explosive "Never Never Gonna Give You Up," a song whose introduction builds…and builds…and builds, the tension growing tighter and hotter and sweatier until—UH!—the jam explodes in your face with the drums and the harpsichord and the slippin’, slidin’ bass. *Whew* Damn. This is ’70s soul at its absolute finest—but it’s also a scorching chunk of that nasty funk, as well: aimed to get your booty moving on the floor and in the boudoir. Whereas contemporary "soul" artists like Akon attempt to make music that can get your body moving in public and in private, Barry White just does it. The man is so stone gon’ in his alternate dimension of pure love and sensuality (and gritty, blasted volcanic rock) that if you let his music into your ears it will transport you to another world, too. Hopefully one with plenty of ladies in it, and not so many volcanic rocks.
And finally, Huang Chung. Wait a sec, don’t you mean Wang Chung? Yeah. Same band. No, honestly—they started out as Huang Chung, but changed their name to Wang Chung after this, their really hard-to-find debut album, because stupid-ass people kept calling ‘em "HUNG Chung." Anyway, this is their debut album, so how does the band primarily known for their soundtrack to To Live and Die in LA and their monumental international hit Mosaic sound fresh out the gate? Honestly…exactly as they do on Mosaic. WangHuang Chung is a remarkably consistent band—which does not, in any sense, mean that everything they do sounds alike. They have a very definite sound…a sort-of cross between post-punk/New Wave and light rock. Their stuff is all very melodic, very high on the hook factor: they build their songs, even on their first album, around the choruses, which is, of course, how most pop-rock bands work. On their debut album, you can already find the compositional seeds of their later Big Hits: "Ti Na Na" (which has the most ridiculous chorus I’ve ever heard in any song other than the Police’s "De Doo Doo Doo, De Da Da Da") sounds like an early version of "Dance Hall Days" and "Hold Back the Tears" sounds a great deal like a draft of "To Live and Die in LA"—but these songs all still have identities of their own. The interesting thing about this album is that it doesn’t sound like a debut album. Wang Chung’s tracks all have a very polished sheen to them, with very little roughness (or, some would say, edginess), even their very first. They sound extremely professional and extremely suave right out the gate, and this album, more than just a historical artifact, is actually a very slick "light New Wave" rock album that will definitely have your head bobbin’ if you’re in a retro kind of mood. But do check out Wang Chung’s MySpace page for some new material, including their rather good cover of Nelly’s "Hot in Herre" (yes, that "I wanna take my clothes off" song) as well as the rather odd "Abducted by the ’80s," which has a very stiff, angular Flying Lizards kind of feel to it. Could the band be getting back to their very unpolished post-punk days? Hell, if they put out a new album, I sure as hell will buy it!
Aaaaand, that’s it. We’re done. Yeah, it’s almost 10pm on Friday, but hey, I was job hunting all day. And by the looks of it, I’ll be unemployed for another week, so I won’t have anything better to do than listen to music and review it. Yay. Catch you next week, anyway!
Technorati Tags: music,music reviews,bone thugs-n-harmony,greatest hits,u2,war,thompson twins,into the gap,barry white,stone gon’,huang chung
Buggles Bonanza!
June 8th, 2008
Yeah, I know—I’ve missed to Friday Fiveheads in the past two weeks. I’ve been so busy trying to fix my fiction site, Footnotes to the Human Species, that I haven’t even thought about music…other than as a soundtrack to my endless hours of trying to debug PHP code and MySQL functions. However, all of my problems with Footnotes just disappeared yesterday—don’t ask me how, because I haven’t a clue: they just stopped, and I’m not gonna jinx myself by enquiring too deeply.
Anyway, YouTube. YouTube is the greatest thing in the world for old New Wavers like myself: just about every obscure old Gary Numan, Tenpole Tudor, Landscape, etc. video in the world has been posted to YouTube for crabby old post-punks like myself to watch and wistfully mourn the days when MTV actually played music videos…and the videos were good (if cheesy and oftimes ridiculous). YouTube, in fact, has even provided me with access to videos I’ve never seen before—videos that I’ve heard rumours about but did not think I would ever actually see…such as The Buggles’ video for “I Am A Camera.”
Well, just the other day, I went looking for Buggles videos…and lo! Witness the awesomeness!
Dear gods, how I love that song. The video somewhat cheapens it—I mean, what’s up with Trevor Horn just lying on the floor and taking his glasses off and putting them back on?—but isn’t it great to finally see the video from one of your alltime favorite songs?
I still regard The Age of Plastic as one of the most perfect albums of all time. There simply isn’t one track on the album that isn’t epic and incredible. Whereas the video for “I Am A Camera,” just doesn’t seem to fit the song, the video for “Living in the Plastic Age” is just perfect: it complements the song’s frantic, plasticine futurism so well I can’t now listen to the song without envisioning the video. I simply must get a plastic jumpsuit now. You know…to go with my Hammer pants.
“Clean, Clean” is one of my favorite Buggles tracks, and seeing them playing it live on British TV is an interesting experience, even if the audio and the video don’t quite sync up. Ohwell, it’s still the Buggles, and they’re still live! While we’re at it…here’s another live video, featuring the band playing their greatest hit, “Video Killed the Radio Star,” again for the BBC:
And finally…this is just amazing. In 2004, for a charity show in Britain, Trevor Horn assembled the entire original crew with whom he’d recorded “Video Killed the Radio Star” and performed this incredible live version of the song. It’s the closest I believe I will ever get to seeing The Buggles live—but, of course, everytime I’ve said that about a band, they reassemble and go on tour within a year or two, so let’s hope my mojo is still working on that front. Anyway, here’s the video:
Damn. Them Buggles were just such a great band, weren’t they?
Technorati Tags: buggles,music,videos,the age of plastic,living in the plastic age,video killed the radio star,clean clean,adventures in modern recording,i am a camera
Footnotes down for the count…but not for long!
June 4th, 2008
OK, folks—take note, ‘cause this is kind of important: PEGRITZ(.com)!’s sister site, Footnotes to the Human Species, is currently M.I.A. The reason is simple: for some reason, WordPress 2.5 stopped working correctly on the site. It simply wouldn’t allow me to edit previously published posts or publish new ones. I upgraded the site to WP 2.5.1, but that did not help one bit. So…the only thing I could think of doing was wiping the installation clean, deleting the SQL database containing all the text, and just starting Completely Anew.
Oh, don’t worry: no content (aside from maybe a “Here’s what I’ve been doing lately” post here and there) has been lost, as I’ve got all that stuff backed up in about five thousand different places. But it will take me a little time to get the site back up and running, with all its plug-ins and enhancements running smoothly (especially since several of them have new versions that are very incompatible with previous versions). Ohwell. Might take a day to get the site back up and running, but remember:
All of the chapter to “City of Pillars” that I will be publishing on the site, Chapters 1 through 7, are the revised versions—many of which are so heavily revised they bear little resemblance, if any, to the originals. You might as well just start back at the beginning, because this thing needed major work to come even close to my standards of quality.
Never, ever start writing something in the middle of a semester of teaching and “make it all up as you go along.” I’ve learned you can’t even do that with a short story of only 1,000 words…let alone a beast that started with an expectation of novella length, but is clearly demanding to be treated as a full-scale novel.
Here’s a heads up on the newly revised “City of Pillars 2.0” that all readers so far hooked on the story should keep their multiple three-lobed eyes peeled for:
Look for a tangential character in “City of Pillars” to be the protagonist/narrator of “Naming the Nameless City”. Also look for Yours Truly, me, appearing in a later chapter that sets up the basic concept of “Iä!”, the story which contains most of what readers familiar with the first incarnation of Footnotes will recognize as the first part of “Trois Frères”—expanded with plenty of sickening details revealing just how horrific the March of the Squidheads is for Humanity as a whole. “Trois Frères” will return as a wholly separate tale, a direct sequel to “Iä!” that sets up much of the action in “Goodnight, Antarctica” and “The Fifth of Five Forms”.
Please bare with me, folks. I want to give you THE best free fictional experience you can possibly get, and I will admit: I’m aiming to be known as the premier literary descendant of H. P. Lovecraft (though, of course, I’ll gladly settle for being known as a really good rip-off artist, as well). If you know me, chances are you’ll probably find yourself in one of these damn stories—but I must warn you: just because we’re best friends, that doesn’t mean you’ll survive. Hell, it doesn’t mean I will survive any of this!
Remember the Footnotes to the Human Species motto: “Who are we to stand before the Gods Themselves and beg for their forbearance”?”
Indeed…who are we? What is Humanity to transcendent alien minds like the Great Old Ones, utterly incomprehensible minds like the Other Gods, and even post-Singularity entities like the Great Race, the Fungi from Yuggoth and their Million Favored Ones, and the Elder Things themselves? Think about that. Are we cockroaches between their feet, or can we be something more?
