Free Music I Like and Think You Will Too

NoiseTrade offers a lot of free music -- usually samplers or live EPs -- but occasionally there's a full album up there. Now is one of those times.

The entire debut album of Kate Tucker & the Sons of Sweden -- quiet, melodic depressing music, the kind I love -- is available, along with two tracks from their upcoming new album and two live cuts, all in a single package and all utterly without costs (unless you feel like tipping).

Need I repeat this is all free? All you need is an e-mail address, and it's yours. There's no deal better than that.

This Is Not the Future I Was Promised

Today, I got an e-mail promoting "backplanes." I was momentarily excited, visualizing some kind of backpack-mounted personal-flight device -- maybe not a jetpack, specifically, but certainly something cool.

Sadly, a backplane turns out to be something dull and technical having to do with computer monitors, and my dreams are shattered.

Have we lived and fought in vain!?

The Moment of Desire

Yesterday, on the train, I read two graphic novels in PDF form on my iPod Touch, using GoodReader (which I recommend, by the way). It was easier than I expected, but what I didn't expect is that now I totally want an iPad. Still don't think I'll buy one right away, but...I might crack.
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Listening to: The Mynabirds - Numbers Don't Lie
via FoxyTunes

Happy Dance

I just got word that my copy of Gahan Wilson: 50 Years of Playboy Cartoons has just shipped from Amazon, a good two weeks before I expected.

If this arrives before Christmas, I am totally wrapping it up for myself and opening it on Xmas morning. It'll probably be the best gift I get, too.

A Book I'm Actually Looking Forward To

Blogging and reviewing can be a quick trip into cynicism -- if there's anything left to become cynical about after a few years in the publishing salt-mines. Most books look like widgets after a while -- they fill a particular hole in the market, and are interesting/useful/demanded by a particular kind of audience, but getting excited about books doesn't happen all that often.

But it does still happen, once in a while. And I'm already eager to read Swords and Dark Magic, an anthology edited by Jonathan Strahan and Lou Anders that has the following very impressive-looking line-up:

Introduction, Lou Anders & Jonathan Strahan

“Goats of Glory”, Steven Erikson

“Tides Elba: A Tale of the Black Company”, Glen Cook

“Bloodsport”, Gene Wolfe

“The Singing Spear”, James Enge

“A Wizard of Wiscezan”, C.J. Cherryh

“A Rich Full Week”, K. J. Parker

“A Suitable Present for a Sorcerous Puppet”, Garth Nix

“Red Pearls: An Elric Story”, Michael Moorcock

“The Deification of Dal Bamore”, Tim Lebbon

“Dark Times at the Midnight Market”, Robert Silverberg

“The Undefiled”, Greg Keyes

“Dapple Hew the Tint Master”, Michael Shea

“In the Stacks”, Scott Lynch

“Two Lions, A Witch, and the War-Robe”, Tanith Lee

“The Sea Troll’s Daughter”, Caitlin R Kiernan

“Thieves of Daring”, Bill Willingham

“The Fool Jobs”, Joe Abercrombie

I cut my SFF teeth on swords & sorcery, and have wished for more of it for the past two decades. And those are some damn fine writers, curated by two excellent editors whose taste I trust. It's coming from Harper sometime next year, which means I have some time to figure out what publicist I need to start hounding for an advance copy....

I Am Drooling As I Type This

Jay Walker has a library I would kill for. And I don't mean just one person. No, I'd work my way through an entire Army platoon, with garrote and knife, to get a library like the one profiled in Wired last month.

(Actually, I've had a dream library in my head for about the last ten years, and this one only partially fits that model. But it's close enough for government work -- I'd be ecstatically happy with anything even remotely similar.)

I Want What He's Got

I missed this New York Times article on Tom Stoppard's excellent traveling book-case on Monday, but caught up with it when PW's Book Maven blog covered it today.

When I travel, I tend to bring three or four books and at least half-a-dozen magazines (for a three- or four-day trip), so I love the idea of this book-box. On the other hand, I stash my reading material in my messenger bag, so I can carry it onto the plane -- that's one of the best places to read on a trip, and I want to have choices then. (Though I'm often reduced to making sure a New Yorker is accessible in an outside pocket and pulling out a current book as I scrunch into the tiny airline seats.)

If I was going anywhere for a week or more, and especially if I'd have reading time while there, I'd love to have a case like this. Pity that they haven't been made for twenty years...