Gwenda

Gypsy Music

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I’ve been loving Beirut’s Gulag Orkestar ever since Kelly and Gavin sent it for my birthday. I had no idea that lead singer Zach Condon was just 20 years old — or that he dropped out of school to bum around Paris, and ended up discovering the wonders of Gypsy music.

This seems like as good a time as any to recommend yet again Fernanda Eberstadt’s fantastic book about Gypsy music and culture in France, Little Money Street: In Search of Gypsies and Their Music in the South of France, especially to those who may be listening to Beirut and intrigued by their influences. I’m not surprised at all that someone’s bringing back the influence of the great (often short-lived, often very young) Gypsy bands to the indie rock scene; I can’t believe it hasn’t happened sooner. I found myself drooling at Eberstadt’s descriptions of the tapes of live shows everyone trades in Perpignan. Let’s just hope the focus on Beirut leads to greater availability of bootlegs of some real Gypsy music.

p.s. Today’s earworm, however, is "Weekends Away" by the Math & Physics Club.

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Friday Hangovers

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Tyranny of the Anecdote

Scientifiction / By /

Some of you have heard the "snail man" anecdote in person. For everyone else, Christopher tells it on MemeTherapy, as one of several writers on the oddest thing they ever learned while researching a story:

It’s something that just came up recently, actually, though I’m not sure whether the info itself is as odd as the tone in which it was conveyed to me. I was on the phone to a science museum curator in Philadelphia, asking for information about snails. The character I’m contributing to the next round of George R.R. Martin’s Wild Cards books is, for want of a better term, a snail-centaur.

He asked “You’re researching this because you want to know what characteristics a snail man would have?”

I told him that was more or less it and he replied, with no hesitation at all, “Snail man would be a tremendous lover.”

All the answers are great fun.

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Requiem (Updated)

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Last week, news filtered out that Mike Simanoff, the blogger behind Little Toy Robot (and other sites over the years), had died. Jeff Bryant wrote about him more eloquently than I’m able to. I only "knew" Mike through our respective sites and exchanging comments over the years; which is to say I knew him enough to be very, very sad for his friends, family and the world that he’s no longer here with us.

John Klima has posted his short story "Morris, His Self," which was in Electric Velocipede #6. There’s also a memorial site. R.I.P.

Updated from Michael’s brother (thanks, Colleen):

"Many people have asked about flowers and memorial donations. We are asking people to make donations in Michael’s memory to the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression." ( http://www.narsad.org/ )

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I’ll Be Your Mirror

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Simon Owens just put up a little interview with me about this here blog and related topics over at Bloggasm. I go a bit crazy on the topics of books I’m looking forward to and blogs I recommend. F’instance:

Oh dear. I never know what’s coming out when. A few books I was really looking forward to have just come out and I’m in the process of reading them — Jeff VanderMeer’s Shriek, Andrea Seigel’s To Feel Stuff, Geoff Ryman’s The King’s Last Song, Julie Phillips’ Tiptree biography. I’m very much looking forward to Cecil Castellucci’s next novel Beige, Holly Black’s Ironside and Justine Larbalestier’s Magic’s Child (oddly, all YA); there aren’t even ARCs I can covet of those yet. Of things getting ready to come out, I would recommend any of the above, plus M.T. Anderson’s Octavian Nothing: Volume 1 and John Green’s An Abundance of Katherines (more YAs). Oh, and David Levithan’s new one. I also can’t WAIT for all the original anthologies Ellen Datlow has in the works. Or for Karen Joy Fowler’s next novel (!), or John Kessel’s or Kelley Eskridge’s, for that matter — but, sadly, these don’t exactly exist yet, though I understand all are in the works. On the upside, Nicola Griffith’s next Aud novel has, according to Wiscon news, been turned in, so that one should be forthcoming (if not soon enough). I’m going to kick myself for leaving something out, I just know it.

Oh, books that aren’t written yet, how I long for you!

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