Music

Today On Ujima: Books & Booze

~ Cheryl ~ 4 Comments

Well, that was back into harness with a bang. Today was all me all the time on Women’s Outlook.

The first hour was all about books we had read over the holiday period. Several of the team were in on the discussion, and mostly they are not SF readers, and we made room for their choices too. The second half hour, however, was mainly SF-focused. Paulette had been reading The Radleys by Matt Haig, which is a very funny book about a family of suburban vampires determined blend into normal society by restraining their natural urges. I have a few reservations about it, but the central theme of the book is how Mr. & Mrs. Radley have avoided telling their children the truth about their nature, and how this leads to tragedy. That led us into discussing Mortal Fire, by Elizabeth Knox, which also has parents manipulating children at its core, and then to Hild by Nicola Griffith which may be an example of justified parental dishonesty.

You can listen to that first hour here.

The second hour saw us discussing a forthcoming conference about Women & Alcohol. I was quite nervous about this as I had no idea what tack the studio guests would take. I had visions of getting a health fanatic who thought that all alcohol consumption was wrong, or a Daily Malice reader who wanted to force women back into the home and make them financially dependent on their husbands so that they can’t (easily) drink. Thankfully my two guests, Patsy and Sabitha, were very sensible and level-headed and I think we had a good conversation.

You can listen to the second hour of the show here.

One of the changes we have made this year is that we are going to have more music in the shows. Paulette brought in some music today, but I chose the tracks. I was delighted to be able to play Carole King, Amy Winehouse and Dusty Springfield. For February, which is LGBT History Month, I’m going to be in charge of the music choices. I want to have all LGBT artists. That should be fun. Definitely on the list are Sylvester, Labi Sifre and Tracy Chapman. Oh, and Josephine Baker. Might have some white folks too. Can’t do it without Cyndi Lauper. But suggestions for more LGBT POC musicians would be appreciated. Please remember that we are heavily regulated for language so we can’t play anything sweary.

That Chip Crockett Time of Year

~ Cheryl

Yeah, it is December. Time to drag the old tree out of storage, stock up on mince pies, and read a few sentimental stories. You know what my favorite is: Chip Crockett’s Christmas Carol, by Liz Hand. Now it turns out that there is a special e-book edition being released this year. Here’s why.

One of the characters in the story is an autistic boy called Peter. Kids like that need very special teachers, and one such person was Anne Marie Murphy who went to school Liz’s younger sister. I say “was”, because Ms. Murphy was one of the victims of the Sandy Hook shootings. So Liz has produced an ebook edition of the book, and all of the proceeds from it are being donated to the charity, Autism Speaks.

Nice move, Liz. I hope it sells well.

Adventure Rocketship Price Drop

~ Cheryl

It being that time of year when everyone is vying for the attention of those valuable holiday season shoppers, prices inevitably tumble. That’s the same here as anywhere else. And I am particularly pleased to be able to offer a substantial (£2) reduction on the price of issue #1 of Adventure Rocketship!. It is a wonderful collection of both fiction and non-fiction celebrating the intersection of science fiction and music. I shouldn’t need to do more than show you what is in it.

  • Non-Fiction
  • Time to Come Back: Delia Derbyshire, Electronic Music Pioneer – David Butler
  • New Worlds Fair: Michael Moorcock, Musician – Jonathan Wright
  • Mick Farren: Still Raging Against the Machine – Sam Jordison
  • Clockwork Angels: Rush and Kevin J Anderson – Rob Williams
  • Bill Nelson: Jets at Dawn – David Quantick
  • But What Does George Clinton’s Mothership Mean? – Minister Faust
  • Roots And Antennae, Tongues And Flight: Boney M Aboard The Black Star Liner – Mark Sinker
  • Music for a Concrete Island: JG Ballard and the Prefabrication of Post-Punk – Jason Heller
  • Ladyhawke: Reclaiming a Soundtrack from its Historical Moment – Anne C Perry
  • Martin Millar: Urban Pioneer – Jon Courtenay Grimwood
  • The Orb: Behind the Ultraworld – Phil Meadley
  • King Rat Revisited: Talking Trash With China Miéville – Jonathan Wright
  • Digital Distribution in an Analogue World: MP3 Markets in Nouakchott, Mauritania – Christopher Kirkley
  • How Long ’Til Black Future Month? The Toxins of Speculative Fiction, and the Antidote that is Janelle Monáe – NK Jemisin
  • Phonogram: Sublimated Emotion – Jared Shurin
  • Possible Futures: 20 Mind-Expanding Ways to Start Your SF Album Collection
  • Fiction
  • Starmen – Liz Williams
  • Between the Notes – Lavie Tidhar
  • Blues for Ahab – Nir Yaniv
  • Musicians – Martin Millar
  • Flight Path Estate – Tim Maughan
  • One Door Closes and then Another Door Closes – Stanley Donwood

Lived To Tell The Tale

~ Cheryl

I did my interview on Radio Bristol today. It was a lot of fun. We talked entirely about science fiction and fantasy. I got to do plugs for BristolCon and the London Worldcon, and name check a whole bunch of people. I also got to rant a little about the lack of women writers on Waterstones’ shelves.

The programme is available for replay here for the next seven days. Sadly my bit is 2 hours & 15 mins into a 3 hour show, and the BBC Listen Again feature does not appear to allow you to fast forward through a show. I will forgive you if you don’t want to listen all the way through just to hear me.

[Update: I’m being told that it is possible to fast forward through the broadcast if you are patient. Probably you have to wait for the whole thing to download. Or maybe it is browser-dependent. Anyway, if you can, start from around 2 hours 5 minutes then skip the Rubettes.]

On the other hand, I have listened to the whole thing, and Richard Lewis runs a tight show. Three hours in the studio is hard going, though it is a bit easier if you don’t have guests in all the time. I note that the show opens with Richard enthusing about the wonders of the theremin. He also has a very eclectic choice of music. Of the four songs he played just before I came on, two were favorites of mine. One was Mott the Hoople’s “Roll away the Stone” (though to be honest just about anything from Mott would have made me happy). The other was Albert Hammond’s “Free Electric Band”, which I’m guessing a lot of you won’t know. Here, through the magic of YouTube, is a little philosophy.

Of course the less said about Gerry Monroe’s “Sally” and The Rubettes’ “Sugar Baby Love” the better. But I guess the BBC has to make room for all aspects of British culture.

Anyway, my thanks to Richard, to his assistants Marcus and Sean, and to Cheryl the Producer. I hope I did OK, and that you’ll have me back again some day.

Brighton Restaurants – The Marlborough

~ Cheryl

Well, more of a pub than a restaurant, and as much of a queer club and theater as a pub. When we have an Outer Alliance meet-up with the local community (which I am sure we will), it will be in the Marlborough, because that is where such things happen in Brighton.

Of course it is a pub, so you’ll be wanting to know about the beer. They have the usual stuff, but also stock beers from a couple of local breweries: WJ King and Dark Star. Katherine McMahon and I did a tasting of the more girly offerings from these folks. Our verdict is that the Sunburst is deliciously smooth and summery, but the Brighton Blonde has much more of the traditional bitterness that people often want from their beer.

As I mentioned above, the Marlborough is a club. They put on lots of events. In particular, on Thursday October 31st, they will be staging a Halloween event. There will be costumes, there will be DJs, and there will be the Voodoo Love Orchestra. Really, what more does World Fantasy need? So do bring your costumes, and let’s horrify the fuddy-duddies on the World Fantasy Board.

Voodoo Love Orchestra – Thriller from Jack Chute on Vimeo.

Swing Down, Sweet Mothership

~ Cheryl

Here’s a funding campaign that you might find interesting. The anthology is called Mothership: Tales from Afrofuturism & Beyond, and it features a spectacular array of authors including Lauren Beukes, Tobias Buckell, Junot Díaz, Minister Faust, N.K. Jemisin, Rochita Loenen-Ruiz, Kiini Ibura Salaam, Sofia Samatar, Nisi Shawl and Vandana Singh. As this is IndieGoGo rather than Kickstarter, the campaign doesn’t have to reach a target in order for the project to happen. So any money you give will go through, regardless of whether the target is met. But given the high profile of the people involved I don’t think there is any danger of this not happening. Of course they could still do with your help. And hey, an ebook anthology with all of those awesome folks and more, for just $10.

And just in case you need any more incentive, here’s George and the boys laying down the P-Funk.

Got funk, y’all? Clicken ye here, and get with the beat.

Today on Ujima – Juggling, Glass, Twitter & Housing

~ Cheryl ~ 1 Comment

Well that was a busy day.

What I knew about today’s show was that I was going to be interviewing Rod Laver, the amazing juggler who was part of Amanda Palmer’s show in Bristol. That took up the first half hour, in which we discussed Amanda, Rod’s act, the juggling world championships, running away to the circus and much more.

What I didn’t know was that I would also be interviewing Jackie Victory, a Bristol-based glass artist, who does some really cool things, and who gave me an excuse to mention Dale Chihuly on the radio. After the ad break I bring in a couple of the regular crew to talk more generally about art in Bristol. There’s a lot of it. One thing I didn’t mention, because I wasn’t sure of the dates, was the crazy golf exhibit at the Arnolfini, which looks like a lot of fun.

All of that is in the first hour, which you can listen to here.

The second hour begins with one of those “lighter look” segments that always gets serious and political in the end. We were supposed to be chatting, in a light-hearted way, about how to put off unwelcome attention from men. But that was partly inspired by the awful trolling that has been going on on Twitter recently, and that led to me having a rant about the proposed abuse button. I guess I need to do a blog post about that. And about the equally idiotic porn filter.

Paulette actually got on the show for one segment doing Woman of the Week with our fabulous Amy, but then she ducked out again and left me to present the final half hour on housing issues. I’m not sure that the discussion got anywhere, but at least people got opportunities to air grievances.

You can listen to the second hour here.

Update: I’m just listening to the first hour and there’s a blank spot during the first ad break. We had a small tech snafu. Don’t worry, it comes back.

Win @AmandaPalmer Tickets for Bristol

~ Cheryl

One of the things that Daryn Carter and I mentioned on the radio today is that Amanda Palmer has very kindly given us some tickets for her Monday show at the O2 Academy to give away. All you need to do in order to be in with a chance of winning a pair of tickets is retweet this:

Good luck!

Finncon – Day 3

~ Cheryl

Yesterday morning began with a fascinating panel on writing and music. It covered a range of topics, including what music is good to write to, how you evoke the sense of listening to music in your books, whether you should include a “playlist” at the back of your novel, and novels which are of interest to people who love music. This is the sort of panel I would love to be on. Then again, I want to see it done with Liz Hand, Ian McDonald, Al Reynolds, Ellen Kushner and Jon Courtenay Grimwood.

Next up was a 2-hour meet-up of international writers, to which our Russian & Chinese friends turned up. I announced the short lists for the Translation Awards, and we got to shower congratulations on Karin Tidbeck. Various plans were hatched for how we could do things to further international cooperation at next year’s Finncon.

Then we did Hall Costume judging. I posted a picture of the winner yesterday.

Back in the hotel, I got the Translation Awards announcement online, and then it was time for the closing ceremonies. There was a dead dog party in the evening, with fabulous food. And then it was time to say goodbye to everyone, with much sadness. Another marvelous Finncon completed, and lots more authors added to the “Finncon is the best convention in the world” club.

Bruce, Reindeer and Me

~ Cheryl ~ 2 Comments

Given last year’s traffic nightmare trying to get out of Helsinki, Otto, Paula and I hit the road nice and early this time. As a consequence we arrived in Turku in very good time and spent the afternoon exploring the city. Otto & Paula have some sort of alternate reality game on their tablets that requires them to visit locations around the world and register at “portals” there. It is sort of like geo-caching, except the treasure is all virtual and you are also part of a team game. It is also a very good excuse to visit interesting buildings, public works of art and so on.

We ended up wandering around the riverside area of Turku in search of somewhere to eat. Otto spotted a steakhouse, and that sounded fairly harmless, so in we went.

Inside it looked very posh, and also very quiet. The waiter who greeted us explained something in Finnish which Otto translated as their having just re-opened after a private party. I thought no more of this and got to examining the menu.

It quickly became obvious that we had stumbled into somewhere very expensive. This was Stefan’s Steakhouse, owned by Stefan Richter who was a finalist on American Top Chef. When you are in such a place, the only thing to do is eat well and worry about the bill later. For comparison, it cost around the same as a meal at Bell’s Diner in Bristol, and is in a similar league quality-wise.

First up a comment about the aperitif they offered. The waiter described it as a mixture of white wine, red soda and cranberries. This was precisely correct. Not wine, soda and cranberry juice; wine, soda and cranberries. It was lovely.

For starters I had to try the roast bone marrow. It is something I had never eaten before. Once extracted from the surrounding bone, it is not the most appetizing-looking stuff in the world, but it tastes wonderful and I was glad to have tried it.

My main course was reindeer sirloin. It is one of the nicest pieces of meat I have ever eaten. I’ve eaten reindeer before, of course, but this was spectacular. Otto & Paula were similarly happy with their steaks.

I’m not sure I’d recommend Stefan’s for dessert. I’ve never seen brownies presented more beautifully, but I have had them cooked better. Otto said his cheesecake was delicious, but it was very small. Still, given the overall quality of the food, I’m not at all unhappy we went there.

Afterwards we headed off to the Cosmic Comic Cafe, where Finnish fandom was gathering for the night. I got talking to Hannah who explained that a lot of people were not going to be there, either because of the USA-Finland ice hockey game, or because of the Bruce Springsteen concert…

I did not strangle anyone. I may have made faces that said, “there is a Springsteen concert on tonight and no one told me? WHY!!!!??????”

Actually Bruce played two nights in Turku (with very different sets for the two nights so all of the hard core fans went to both). Tickets sold out within 15 minutes of them being made available, so there’s no way I would have got one unless I’d known well in advance. But still…

“Oh yes,” said Otto, “that’s what the guy in the restaurant was on about. They had just re-opened after a private function for Springsteen and his tour party.”

So there you have it. Entirely by chance, we ate in the same restaurant as Bruce and the E-Street Band, just after he had left. For all I know, I could have sat in the same chair he used. I am going to pretend that it is so. I hope he enjoyed his meal as much as I did.

Adam Ant Gig Report

~ Cheryl

I enjoyed the Adam Ant gig so much that I figured I should write a proper review. As is usually the case with music journalism, it is far more pretentious than what I normally write about books. It probably also requires a certain level of familiarity with antlyrics. You can find it here.

Welcome to Turtle Bay

~ Cheryl

One of the benefits of working for an Afro-Caribbean radio station is that you occasionally get invited to community events. That paid off well last night as I got a free ticket to the opening of the Bristol branch of Turtle Bay, a new chain of Caribbean restaurants. It was a great night. They plied us with free rum cocktails, and a broad selection of nibbles from the menu. There was also live music provided by Laid Blak.

I was seriously impressed by the food. The jerk pit chicken wings, sweetcorn fritters and chili friend calamari are all to die for, and basically everything they brought us was good. I can see that I’m going to have to go back often so that I can eat my way through the entire menu. The only real problem that I have is that they are right next door to My Burrito, so I’ll suffer from dreadful indecision as to which door to go through. If it is warm and sunny I think Turtle bay will win, if only because I’ll be tempted by the Marley Mojito (which isn’t on the online menu so I’ll need to write down the menu next time I’m there).

Many thanks to the staff there, and the band, for a wonderful evening, and to Annabelle for the lift back to Temple Meads.

Adventure Rocketship is Agogo

~ Cheryl ~ 2 Comments

Many moons ago now I remember having lunch in Bristol with Jonathan Wright, a senior book reviewer for SFX. He was planning on launching a science fiction magazine, and wanted my advice. I’m not sure that my experiences with Salon Futura were at all helpful to him, but I didn’t manage to put him off, and the fruits of his labors will shortly be available to the public. My ARC arrived yesterday, and I’m looking forward to reading it.

I should note at this point that whatever advice I gave did not extend to titles. The snootier parts of fandom are going to get no further than Adventure Rocketship. Or, if they are brave enough to look further, they will bale when they find that issue #1 is titled “Let’s All Go To The Science Fiction Disco”. Doing so, however, would cause them to miss out on some very interesting material.

Let’s start with that title. The theme of the issue is the intersection between science fiction and music. That’s a challenging subject, because right now there is a very fine line dividing history and nostalgia. A number of recent BBC documentaries have fallen squarely on the wrong side of that divide, and while I’m happy to wallow in fond memories of David Bowie, Mott the Hoople and Roxy Music, I suspect that the jury is still considering their legacy.

The benefits of doing this sort of thing in a magazine are that you have time and space to consider issues properly, that you can’t be tempted to use lots of video clips, and that you can’t afford lengthy interviews with aging rock stars. You can, of course, have interviews with science fiction writers, which I suspect is more interesting.

Jonathan’s contributions to the issue include interviews with Michael Moorcock and China Miéville (the latter about his music-themed debut novel, King Rat). Sam Jordison interviews Mick Farren, who genuinely does bestraddle both music and SF. There are serious essays too, including Anne C. Perry making a bid to rescue the reputation of Alan Parsons’ soundtrack for the Ladyhawke movie (which I’m now going to have to watch again), and N.K. Jemisin asking “How Long ‘Til Black Future Month?”. There’s fiction, with new, music-themed stories from writers such as Liz Williams, Lavie Tidhar and Tim Maughan. And there’s a big list of SF-influenced albums in the back, by no means all of which I own. Yet.

There’s a lot of material to sift through. Heck, it has been produced as a paperback book, it is so long (200 pages). I haven’t mentioned the contributions by Jason Heller or Jon Courtenay Grimwood yet. I’m not in there, though if I had any idea how to get an interview with Natasha Khan I might have been. There are plenty of things you could buy the magazine for. As far as I’m concerned, I’d happily shell out to read Minister Faust writing about the Mothership Connection. The rest is just a bonus.

I’ve just got email from Danie Ware announcing launch events for the magazine at the London Forbidden Planet on May 16th, and at the Bristol store on May 18th. I hope to see some of you at the latter.

Update: Jonathan’s job title at SFX corrected, with apologies to all concerned.

Tim Invents Brizzlewood

~ Cheryl

My friend Tim Maughan has made a short film of the opening scenes of his short story, “Paintwork”. It is a very low budget exercise, so it is all done with stills and animation rather than live action, but it looks fabulous. It has that “mean streets in the rain” look that cyberpunk does so well, but has Tim’s signature feature of having those streets populated by kids with spray cans rather than hackers with expensive electronics. The narration and sound track, done by some of Tim’s friends from the Bristol music scene, is really good too. Hey, and William Gibson liked it, which caused Tim to fangasm spectacularly.

Tim has made one fairly significant change to the story for the film, which had me smiling as I watched it. See if you notice.

There is more information about the people involved in the film at its YouTube page. And of course you can still read the full story for free at Tor.com. The short collection from which “Paintwork” is the title story is still available at the bookstore.

Talis At The Village Pump

~ Cheryl

About 15 minutes walk from my cottage, just past Tesco’s, is a big roundabout. On that is an old pub called The Lamb. It is so old that it has outbuildings, and in what might be an old stables or carriage house is the current home of the local folk club, The Village Pump. I’ve know it exists for some time as the club runs an annual folk festival, but I had never actually visited it. Last night, however, I had good reason to do so, because Talis Kimberley was the headline act.

I wish now that I’d taken my proper camera (the one on my phone has stopped working) because the venue is lovely. Fortunately I can link to one from the club’s website:

The Village Pump clubhouse

Talis was very taken with the place too. And that’s much more important because there are cow pats that have a better ear for music than me. If the talent says that the venue is good, that means a lot more.

The club is very participatory. In addition to Talis and the support band, there were brief floor spots from four other acts. That meant that a substantial part of the audience was made up of performers.

Interestingly, their definition of “folk” included a lot of country. Of course America was originally settled invaded by people from the South West of England so we do have a connection. And this is a poor, rural part of the UK, so a lot of the themes of country resonate with people here.

Talis and the band were awesome. This is the first time I’ve been able to hear her set properly. That’s partly because conventions don’t have the same, purpose-built sound systems as a folk club, and partly because I’m always distracted by other things at BristolCon. It was a thorough enjoyable evening.

Back in 2011 I drew your attention to the song that Talis had written about the occupation of St.Pauls. I wasn’t aware that she had written a follow-up. Here it is.

And if that’s too serious for you, here is the magnificent Ex Libris.

And now, please all go to Talis’s website and buy music.

Last Minute Shopping Under a Gibbous Moon

~ Cheryl ~ 1 Comment

Forgotten someone this Christmas? Never fear, online shops never close, and I have the perfect gift for you! I am talking, of course, of An Abhorrent & Ancient Solstice, a squamous and eldritch collection of tentacle-fueled seasonal jollity now available from the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society as a digital download.

Sadly this one isn’t on it, but it gives you a good idea of what to expect.

While you are at the HPLHS store, you might like to check out their jazz album: Ogham Waite and the Amphibian Jazz Band Live at the Gilman House. It’s fabulous stuff. I’m particularly fond of “Somewhere Under the Ocean”. I can’t find that one on YouTube, but here’s an extract from “My Slimy Cephalopod”.

Of course you could always buy a book instead, but advertising my own store seems a bit unseasonal. To teach me a lesson, here’s the very wise Tom Lehrer.

Happy Winterval, everyone!