Archive for September, 2008

Three items of note: my long-suffering travel essay Buffalo, Redux will be in the October edition of Eclectica. My film essay on the works of horror icon John Carpenter makes its way to Penny Blood Magazine just in time for Halloween, and the limited edition Jack the Bastard broadsides have been completed.

What’s a broadside? It’s a piece of original art usually reserved for advertisements, and in this case I’ve applied it to Jack the Bastard, had it signed and numbered by the artist (the hyper-talented Tyler Edlin), and made it available for pre-ordering. I’ll be shipping 100 of them with the first edition of Jack. The broadsides are printed on hardy matte paper, and are definitely suitable for framing. So far we have two illustrations, and we may add more. A low-res sample:

That pretty lady is Soledad Santanillo, one of the major characters in Jack. And yes, she knows how to use that sword.

I’m trying out the Nabaztag. It’s a wireless rabbit.

Let me explain: a few years ago this French company created a wireless device that was supposed to usher in the era of low-budget smart homes. They called it Nabaztag, which is Armenian for “rabbit.” The Nabaztag looks like something from the Japanese bizarro-kawaii pool:

I’m a quasi-techie, which means I like things like the Nabaztag but can only figure out 50% of their intended functionality. So this wireless rabbit–it can serve as a PA, an email hound, and can read stories to your children–has become my ambient weather center and my talking clock. Sometimes it reads NYT headlines, or moves its ears in semblance of Tai Chi. It also plays hip-hop from Beat Basement. Nabaztag supports dozens of other web radio channels. Some rarely work, like the 70’s soft rock channel. But so what. Do I need to hear The Carpenters?

So yeah, it’s fun. And if by some wild chance you own a Nabaztag, you can send me a message. The name of my–ahem–”rabbit” is Holliston.

The curious can read more at Nabaztag.com.