The 3 Most Important Things in Life

From the beginning, I intended a secondary purpose for this blog, as I didn't expect to have posts about my story progress for you all the time. I wanted a place to turn you guys on to stuff that I really liked. Who knows? Since The One-Thousand now seems like an impossible goal unless I quit my job, that secondary purpose may become the primary.

Along those bolstered lines is my favorite essay of all time, Harlan Ellison's The 3 Most Important Things in Life, a journey through three highly entertaining episodes of his highly entertaining life. I would have spread the word earlier had I realized it was available online. You can read it here: http://harlanellison.com/iwrite/mostimp.htm 

I hope that the highly-litigious and perhaps less than internet savvy Ellison understands that I am not copying or distributing his work by linking to it. What I do, I do out of love, and the desire to turn people on to the work of one of my favorite writers.

Enjoy.

Harlan's New Glass Teat

Have you subscribed to Harlan Ellison's YouTube channel yet? Why not? He's not only a writer worthy of being one of my literary heroes, he's also lots of fun to watch. The link is here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1XrlRQsRxYfuc47CCJN05w The channel seems to include all the brilliant spots he did for Sci Fi Buzz in the nineties (Harlan Ellison's Watching)! Here's a little taste:

Now I Am A Gazelle

If you missed my prancing, see here: http://theonethousand.blogspot.com/2010/07/prancing-through-bookstore.html

A couple of days ago, a guy at the store asked for something and as we walked back to get it he said, "Man, you must have been an athlete. You move like a gazelle!" Certainly the first time I've ever heard those words. And I'm quite confident that he wasn't hitting on me. If this keeps up, people will demand to see video of me walking around.

The magnificent Harlan Ellison says that he is dying: http://www.isthmus.com/isthmus/article.php?article=30610 Which makes me a sad gazelle. You can listen to my open letter to Harlan Ellison on this subject here at the very beginning of the latest episode of StarShipSofa's Aural Delights: http://www.starshipsofa.com/20100929/aural-delights-no-156-robert-reed/

If you want to read my latest published work, head over to Twitter where Grant Stone's embryonic fanzine, b0t, is tweeting my Twitter serial, CITY1. One part is being released each day in October. Look: http://twitter.com/b0tzine If you're not familiar with Twitter, you'll have to read those posts (marked with the hashtag #CITY1) from the bottom up.

Ugh!

I'm sorry I've been neglecting you again, faithful blog. The last two weeks have been tough. I have been getting some writing done though. Some quick points:

Dad's home at my brother's house. We're all going to be taking turns helping him through the day.

I finished a first draft of a story today. The working title is "Thank You, Mr. Goldman."

I haven't even begun to read stories for the next Fiction Crawler and it really should have been completed by now. Gads!

Got two hours of sleep last night, thanks to Monday morning and my crappy dog. Grrr.

I saw the documentary "Dreams with Sharp Teeth" the other night. Wonderful. I love Harlan Ellison. More details on that (the movie, not my love) another time.

That's it. Hope to talk to you all tomorrow!

I Am Not A Man! I Am A Blog Post!

Read this today in my daily A.Word.A.Day e-mail:

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

A time will come when a politician who has wilfully made war and promoted international dissension will be as sure of the dock and much surer of the noose than a private homicide. It is not reasonable that those who gamble with men's lives should not stake their own. -H.G. Wells, writer (1866-1946)

Gotta love that Anu Garg.

Here's the Sofa stuff this week, haven't mentioned that yet:

This week StarShipSofa is pleased to present Aural Delights No. 59. Blast off!

Aural Delights No 59 Gregory Frost

Editorial: Tony C Smith

Poem: As If We Could Change Anything by G O Clark

Flash: Jonathon by Church H Tucker

Film Talk: Rod Barnett

Main Fiction: In The Sunken Museum by Gregory Frost

New Titles: Tony C Smith

Serial Part 3 of 3: Temptation by David Brin Contrary Brin

Narrators: Julie Davis, Gregory Frost, Z

This podcast is brought to you by Audible.com. Download a free audiobook of your choice today at audiblepodcast.com/sofa

www.starshipsofa.com

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What else is going on? I've been thinking about watching The Prisoner on AMC. Oh, sure, you say, now that McGoohan's dead. Well, yeah, between people talking about that and AMC doing the new version and everybody pointing to AMC's site, like I just did, I'm thinking about it. I never watched it before. I mean, I've seen scenes as my wife was watching it, I know the set-up, I know the music, I even know the Iron Maiden song:

The Prisoner - Iron Maiden

But I never really sat down and watched the show. You know what would be cool? Many years ago the Sci Fi Channel ran a Prisoner marathon and Harlan Ellison, who loved the series, did intros for each episode. It would be cool to see those. If anyone knows if those are available, let me know. It's not that In Search of The Prisoner documentary on YouTube either.

The former wife is feeling much better, by the by. She expects to be feeling shockingly nifty by Monday. This, I think, is all that I have to say for right now. Bye.