Originally published at Scott Edelman. Please leave any comments there.

The Nebulas Awards banquet was held last night in San Jose, and usually, I’d have been there. But this year, I wanted to attend the the March George Formby Society Convention in Blackpool, and so something had to give—which meant the Nebulas as well as this year’s World Horror Convention in New Orleans were out.

So I amused myself this weekend by looking back two years to my photos from 2003 Nebula Awards weekend and sharing them on Twitter, but thought I should gather them together here as well.

So get ready to flashback to a gentler, more innocent time …

Scott Edelman (with butterfly) and Bill Shunn

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Originally published at Scott Edelman. Please leave any comments there.

Earlier this week I shared a photo taken in high school which shows me wearing a tutu and a black-and-white sequined bra—a photo which once seen cannot be unseen and therefore deserves some kind of trigger warning before you click.

While flipping through old albums in search of that photo, I came across a couple of other images which feature an equally unrecognizable while also bizarre younger me. These were taken when I worked in the Marvel Bullpen, and were used in the fake ad below which appeared in an issue of Crazy magazine.

Behold!

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Originally published at Scott Edelman. Please leave any comments there.

Next restaurant, which reinvents itself three times a year, releases a video to promote each new menu. Sometimes, as with its video for The Hunt, you get a good idea what you’ll be eating while there. But the just-released video for the new Vegan menu, which launches tonight, is a bit more … enigmatic.

Enigmatic … but hilarious.

After having watched that, I have absolutely no idea what Next will have in store for me when I sit down at my Kitchen Table at the end of the month.

One thing I do know, however—it makes me want to go on a heist with those guys!

Originally published at Scott Edelman. Please leave any comments there.

I picked up a Fitbit Flex over the weekend to track the level of my activity and the quality of my sleep, and have been wearing the device on my wrist 24/7 since around 6:00 p.m. Saturday. The chart below reveals disturbing news about what my Monday was like, even though I logged 10,560 steps.

I was sedentary for 12 hours and six minutes! Since I already know that staying seated during the day is a killer, that’s not good news.

As you can see, the ratio of sedentary to active so far this morning isn’t quite as unbalanced, but I’m sure that by day’s end, it’ll be looking a lot like yesterday.

So what’s a guy with a deskjob to do? Am I doomed?

Originally published at Scott Edelman. Please leave any comments there.

Apparently, the Internet trolls have their knives out for John Scalzi tonight. (But is there ever a night during which the Internet trolls don’t have their knives out for John Scalzi?)

After he posted a dashing photo of himself wearing Rachel Caine‘s red shoes at the Romantic Times Booklovers Convention, “The sexist dipshits are passing around the picture of me in high heels, as if I did something shameful. Because they are sexist dipshits.”

So to give those sexist dipshits a distraction that might take some heat off John, and to show I’ve always been willing to do pretty much anything and not care what anyone else might think, may I present—

Me as a high school junior. Wearing a tutu. And a black-and-white sequined bra. A black-and-white sequined bra that needed to be heavily stuffed with tissues.

You’re welcome.

Originally published at Scott Edelman. Please leave any comments there.

I have an extremely active dream life, and those that I remember I share each morning on Twitter. Once a month, I harvest them from the rest of my tweets and share them here. So below is what went through my sleeping mind during April.

My guest stars included Elaine Stritch, Jamie Foxx, John Barrowman, Woody Allen, Ray Bradbury, Paul Newman, Mad Men’s Roger Sterling, and more.

Step into last month’s subconscious …

APRIL 2013



I dreamt that as I headed to an opera house, I saw ‪@doctorow rushing the other way, having forgotten his ticket. We agreed to speak later. 30 Apr

I dreamt I was part of a drug deal gone bad, but somehow was able to get away and hide in an alley until it all blew over. 28 Apr

I dreamt I was with ‪@mrbelm at a party run by the people behind that world’s 50 best restaurants list, but couldn’t get to any of the food! 28 Apr

I dreamt I was carrying my father’s coffin from the hearse to the gravesite, and one of the pallbearers was Mad Men’s Roger Sterling.

 28 Apr

I dreamt I was on a courtesy computer in a hotel lobby with ‪@amelia_beamer, searching fruitlessly for an article I’d hoped to show her.

 27 Apr

I dreamt I attended Xavier’s School for Gifted Mutants, and all around me, kids pranked each other. I never found out my own power though.

 26 Apr

I dreamt that after my waitress brought my entree, I noticed she was — Elaine Stritch! So I jumped up and hugged her and wouldn’t let go.

 25 Apr

I dreamt a man with a razor tried to mug me on a deserted nighttime street, but I kept spinning out of his reach and eventually got away.

 25 Apr

I dreamt I was given a tour of an extremely odd museum, about which I remember little, save for the surreal room of deflated balloons.

 25 Apr

I dreamt I spotted a kidnapper with his child victim in a bus station. When he seemed distracted, I tackled him and held until police came.

 24 Apr

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Originally published at Scott Edelman. Please leave any comments there.

My short story “Things That Never Happened” will soon appear in Postscripts #30/31 from PS Publishing. The issue, which carries not just a number, but also the title Memoryville Blues, will be out once the signature sheets pass through the hands of all the contributors and make their way back to the publisher.

I’m not sure how long that whole process will take, but while we wait, check out the cover below (which might not be the final design).

Here’s the complete Table of Contents:

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Originally published at Scott Edelman. Please leave any comments there.

The 2013 list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants has just been released, and I’ve been to four of them. I hope to hit a couple more real soon—especially The Fat Duck, which is a 2014 goal of mine either before or after the London Worldcon.

Click through on restaurants 5, 9, 14, and 15 to see what I thought of them … and prepare to salivate.

1. El Celler de Can Roca,Girona, Catalonia, Spain.
2. Noma, Copenhagen
4. Mugaritz, San Sebastián, Spain
5. Eleven Madison Park, New York City
6. D.O.M., Sao Paulo, Brazil
7. Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, London
8. Arzak, San Sebastián, Spain
9. Steirereck Restaurant, Vienna, Austria
10. Vendôme, Bergisch Gladbach, Germany
11. Per Se, New York City, USA
12. Frantzén/Lindeberg, Stockholm, Sweden
13. The Ledbury, London, UK
14. Astrid y Gastón, Lima, Peru
15. Alinea, Chicago, USA
16. L’Arpège, Paris, France
17. Pujol, Mexico City, Mexico
18. Le Chateaubriand, Paris, France
19. Le Bernardin, New York City, USA
20. Narisawa, Tokyo, Japan
21. Attica, Melbourne, Australia
22. Nihonryori RyuGin, Tokyo, Japan
23. L’Astrance, Paris, France
24. L’Atelier Saint-Germain de Joël Robuchon, Paris, France
25. Hof Van Cleve, Kruishoutem, Belgium
26. Quique Dacosta, Dénia, Spain
27. Le Calandre, Rubano, Italy
28. Mirazur, Menton, France
29. Daniel, New York City, USA
30. Aqua, Wolfsburg, Germany
31. Biko, Mexico City, Mexico
32. Nahm, Bangkok, Thailand
33. The Fat Duck, Bray, UK
34. Fäviken, Järpen, Sweden
35. Oud Sluis, Sluis, Netherlands
36. Amber, Hong Kong, China
37. Vila Joya, Albufeira, Portugal
38. Restaurant Andre, Singapore
39. 8 1/2 Otto E Mezzo Bombana, Hong Kong, China
40. Combal.Zero, Rivoli, Italy
41. Piazza Duomo, Alba, Italia
42. Schloss Schauenstein, Fürstenau, Switzerland
43. Mr & Mrs Bund, Shanghai, China
44. Asador Etxebarri, Atxondo, Spain
45. Geranium, Copenhagen, Denmark
46. Mani, São Paulo, Brasil
47. The French Laundry, Yountville, USA
48. Quay, Sydney, Australia
49. Septime, Paris, France
50. Central, Lima, Perú

Eleven Madison Park’s jump from #10 to #5 makes me think I’ve got to head back for another try, as my underwhelmed reaction continues to trouble me. But next time, it’ll be dinner instead of lunch.

So—how many have YOU managed to hit?

Originally published at Scott Edelman. Please leave any comments there.

The chameleon-like Next restaurant releases an enigmatic video with each new cuisine it serves (check out The Hunt and Kyoto, for example), so those of us who love the place wonder what we’ll see in support of the new Vegan menu, which begins May 8.

Over on Twitter, Christian Seel just shared a screen grab from that coming video, which has me wondering …

… what does that image have to do with a Vegan cuisine?

My guess? Actor Stephen Bernacki is about to strip off his work clothes, toss away that briefcase, abandon the urban lifestyle, and go back to the land.

Can’t wait to see whether I’m right. And, as usual, can’t wait to get back to Next!

Originally published at Scott Edelman. Please leave any comments there.

Next Saturday is Free Comic Book Day, which means that if you wander into a comics shop on May 4, 2013, you might just walk out with a comic book written … by me!

But how is that possible? I haven’t written any comics in decades. How could I possibly have anything in a comic handed out on Free Comic Book Day?

Blame Thanos!

Bill Hall of The Daily Kirby let me know today (beating out Marvel Comics, who’s yet to alert me) that my back-up story from Logan’s Run #6, which starred Thanos and Drax the Destroyer, will be reprinted in Infinity, Marvel’s giveaway for Free Comic Book Day. All because Thanos is now a big deal due to his appearance at the end of The Avengers movie.

The freebie is described as follows:( Read the rest of this entry »Collapse )

Originally published at Scott Edelman. Please leave any comments there.

If you know anything about me, you know I like to make every meal count. So when I head off to a convention, I do my research. And with LoneStarCon 3 right around the corner (hey, when you’re making strategic plans like these, what can I say, August does seem just around the corner), I’ve already scouted out where I want to eat in San Antonio.

First on my hit list—did you know that the Culinary Institute of America, training ground for so many fine chefs, has a branch in San Antonio? And that they operate a restaurant? I had no idea, but it’s called Nao, and I aim to eat there either the Friday or Saturday night of the convention.

That’s their causitas made with purple potato puree and crab above, which I look forward to seeing on a plate in front of me in a few months.

Next up, Bliss, where chef Mark Bliss, considered a San Antonio legend, does his stuff.

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Originally published at Scott Edelman. Please leave any comments there.

The Boston manhunt is over, and my thoughts continue to be with the victims of the initial blasts, as well as the shootings which followed. I have little to contribute save my sadness. But this tragedy, thanks to social media, does bring to mind another tragedy from exactly 18 years ago …

Assuming we’re not being hoaxed, Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, aka suspect #2, had a Twitter account. If real, I’m sure pundits will analyze it the hopes of finding a reason why Tsarnaev took the path he did. I don’t believe they’ll find one there. But what stood out to me (for reasons which will shortly become clear) is that he watched Breaking Bad …

… as well as The Walking Dead …

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Originally published at Scott Edelman. Please leave any comments there.

I told you Friday about Image Duplicator, an upcoming gallery show in which comic book artists are going back to the sources Roy Lichtenstein used without credit in his paintings and doing new pieces based on the primary images in order to comment on the controversy surrounding the lack of attribution.

I spotted another artistic response today that tickled me.

First, take a look at Roy Lichtenstein’s “I Can See the Whole Room … and There’s Nobody in It!”

That painting, based on a panel by William Overgard from a Steve Roper newspaper strip, sold for $43.2 million November 2011. $43.2 million!

Here’s Overgard’s original image.( Read the rest of this entry »Collapse )

Originally published at Scott Edelman. Please leave any comments there.

If you’ve been hanging around here for any length of time, you already know how much I despise Roy Lichtenstein and those who I feel treat comic book artists the same way he did. So I was delighted to learn via Bleeding Cool that UK comic book artists were planning to protest the Lichtenstein exhibition at the Tate Modern with an exhibition of their own.

Image Duplicator is the name of a show which will appear at the Orbital Gallery in Leicester Square from May 16th-31st, gathering together the works of artists commenting on Lichtenstein’s treatment of the original creators he never credited.

Here’s what they’ve been invited to do:

Every interested comic artist (or illustrator, graphic designer or other “commercial artist”) should “re-reappropriate” one of the comic images Lichtenstein used, and rework it, using some of their ‘commercial art’ drawing skills, to warp and twist it into something interesting and original, and in the process to comment on this type of appropriation.

The first response I spotted was by Dave Gibbons, who tackled one of Lichtenstein’s most famous copyings. First, here’s the Lichtenstein, titled “Whaam!”

Before taking a look at what Gibbons did, check out Irv Novick’s original panel from All-American Men of War #89 (Jan.-Feb. 1962).
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Originally published at Scott Edelman. Please leave any comments there.

Another month has gone by, so I again gather the dreams I’ve been tweeting to see whether they make any more sense en masse than they do individually. During March, I dreamt of Liam Neeson, James Earl Jones, Ernie Kovacs, Eric Northman, Abraham Lincoln, and—as you’ll see if you read below—many others.

MARCH 2013

I dreamt I sat in a ukulele class and looked down to see I was holding a guitar –and only 15 minutes left, so no time to retrieve my uke! 31 Mar

I dreamt I hopped on a beautiful silver rocket bike, but none of the buttons did anything more than make lights flash. I still had to pedal. 31 Mar

I dreamt I happened to be in a parking lot when Obama and a bunch of kids came out, signed a document of their meeting, then left it behind. 30 Mar

I dreamt I was in Vienna, and in order to mock someone who’d betrayed my friends, I sang him a taunting song in German in a theater lobby. 30 Mar

I dreamt a Beastie Boys-like band was about to record one of my songs at an amusement park, and I waited for the limo to take me there. 30 Mar

I dreamt I was doing a final walk-through with a realtor, making sure everything was ready for our buyers to do _their_ final walk-through. 30 Mar

I dreamt I was in the Marvel Bullpen explaining various ways comics artists make it look like it’s raining — Wite-Out, X-Acto blades, etc. 29 Mar

I dreamt I was in charge of wrangling the entire cast of Babylon 5 at a media con — except for Bruce Boxleitner, who refused to show. 29 Mar

I dreamt the Worldcon was being held in Baltimore, and as I wandered the room parties, I kept repeatedly encountering Mary Turzillo. 29 Mar

I dreamt about telomeres, but … I can’t remember in what context. Was I researching them, having mine extended, eating them? Who knows? 28 Mar

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Originally published at Scott Edelman. Please leave any comments there.

As Irene and I walked south down Chicago’s Michigan Avenue Saturday, I happened to look to the left at just the right moment to spot the Hulk looking back—because this print by artist Doug Bloodworth was hanging in a gallery window.

Here’s a clearer version of the piece, with the image not obscured by the glare of the street lights.

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Originally published at Scott Edelman. Please leave any comments there.

The first time I saw Carmine Infantino was at my first comic book convention back in 1970. Or so I assume. After all, he was one of the Guests of Honor there. But being for the first time in the presence of my tribe, I was in a daze, so much of that weekend is a muddled explosion of joy, and I don’t specifically remember meeting him.

The last time I saw him was forty years later at the funeral of Mark Hanerfeld, coincidentally the guy without whom I’d never have made it to that first convention. We chatted a bit, mostly about Mark.

I have no great anecdotes to share about the man who drew the first comic book of the Silver Age, and whose work both in that issue and for decades to come imprinted itself on my soul. I wish I did. And you can find the details of his life and plenty of examples of his talent elsewhere.

But I thought the least I could do to say thanks at a time like this was to share his biography as printed in the program book for that 1970 con which changed my life …

… as well as the back cover, which featured his artwork.

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Originally published at Scott Edelman. Please leave any comments there.

In 1981, I had a commemorative coin minted to celebrate the fifth anniversary of my marriage to Irene Vartanoff. I was working for Psychology Today magazine at the time, where catalogs would continually arrive from manufacturers of merchandising giveaways—key rings, belt buckles, T-shirts, etc.—that could be personalized. And it struck me—why should companies have all the fun?

So I ordered a batch of metal coins incorporating our names, the dates we’d been married, and—here’s the part that tickled me the most—

… the words LEGAL AND TENDER, a description of our marital status that’s also an allusion to the phrase LEGAL TENDER which appears on U.S. currency.

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Originally published at Scott Edelman. Please leave any comments there.

When we learned a few months back that the National Gallery of Art would be hosting a massive exhibit on the Pre-Raphaelites, we decided that we’d visit there on my birthday. And when Tim Carman’s review of New Big Wong appeared in the Washington Post just a few days before we were set to go, it seemed like serendipity.

The restaurant was within walking distance of the museum, so it seemed like the perfect spot for a birthday feast, especially after reading that it was “a popular destination for bartenders and restaurant employees in the wee hours,” and seeing that Chef José Andrés of the famed minibar had “eaten there over 50 times” and Jeffrey J. Barrientos, also of minibar, had “dined there 100 times that I can remember.”

So after gorging on the Pre-Raphaelites, my wife and son and I walked a half mile north to New Big Wong, where I expected to gorge far less metaphorically. And also, to be wowed.

I was not.

The dishes we ordered resulted in a bifurcated meal, in that my son and I shared the more adventurous Jelly Fish with Pork Loin …

… and Sauteed Duck Tongue with Black Bean Sauce …

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Originally published at Scott Edelman. Please leave any comments there.

Whenever I tell people that one of the most joyful parts of the George Formby Society convention I attended two weeks ago was the Thrash, they ask me to explain—what the heck’s a Thrash? And though I tell them it’s that part of a concert during which everyone who wants to is welcome to come up en masse to strum a bunch of songs, it’s hard to really convey the fun of it all.

Much easier to simply show you. And so …

If you scroll ahead to 40:06 on the video below, you’ll see a small part of one of the many Thrashes that took place during the weekend.

Now that you’ve experienced a Thrash, make sure you go back to the beginning and watch the video straight through. Lots of great ukulele playing there!

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