August 16, 2002
Friday August 16, 2002 • Howard Tayler

Okay, so in the interest of economics, I left the link to SchlockMart up for a week, so you Schlockers out there could get your paws on the new shirts. And the good news is that many of you have. The other good news is that there are still plenty of shirts left, and we've still got the triple-XL sizes.

Speaking of Triple-X things, I saw the Vin Diesel movie, xXx, and enjoyed it. Sandra wasn't interested in coming to the movie with me, so I phoned her from the theater just so I could say "I phoned my wife from a triple-x movie theater" in this entry. Silly, no? Hardly sillier than the movie itself.

Links to cool things:

  • Aaron Farber is launching a very silly new comic. Check out Men In Hats.
  • Bruce Wright put up an Appearance Count Page for Schlock Mercenary. Statistics are fascinating (well, statistics about the things I draw are fascinating to me.)
  • I love NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day. It's updated more regularly than any Webcomic I know of (except perhaps Schlock Mercenary), and is far more informative.

Back in the brick-and-mortar world, I went to Media Play while on the prowl for two things: A Suzanne Vega album with "Blood Makes Noise" on it, and a book called Marrow by Robert Reed. It was depressing -- the store was a shadow of its former self, with little inventory on display, entire swaths of floor-space empty, and a sci-fi/fantasy section that spanned all of three short shelves. Not only did they not have the CD or book I was looking for, they had NOTHING by Suzanne Vega nor Robert Reed.

Depressing. Sure, I could shop online, but I wanted some tangibility-shopping and all I got for my trouble was a painful reminder of how wonderful a place Media Play seemed when it first opened.

A day later I went to Barnes and Noble, and discovered that not only did they have BOTH articles I wanted, they were also being patronized by lots of actual human beings -- flesh-and-blood entities, stalking their literary prey up and down the aisles. I bought my book and CD, perused the SF/F section for a bit, and felt good about dropping $23 to support a place where I can treat myself to tactile tangibility.

Then I got home and realized that Suzanne Vega could have spent a little more time exploring the musical possibilities she scratched the surface of in "Blood Makes Noise." The lyrical genius evident in the initial exposition of the idea is a bit diminished by the fact that the track only has two minutes of material on it. It might say "2:28," but that just means "we're gonna fade out for nigh on 30 seconds." Oh well. At least the rest of the album shows promise.