If you live in the Minneapolis / St. Paul area, there's a handful of names you-you-you outta know, even if you aren't involved with the local music scene. Mark Mallman is one of them.

Imagine you are at a great show, and the band reaches the crescendo at the end of the night; the penultimate build-up to the penultimate climax, and you swear the energy being conjured is so intense that even the walls of First Avenue couldn't possibly contain it...

...That's how Mark Mallman starts the show, and the energy goes up from there.

Make sure to check out his Wikipedia entry. to find out about the Marathon 26.2 Hour and 52.4 Hour SONGS he did. And if you ask me, he was robbed for not getting into the Guinness Book of World Records for the "Longest Pop Song". Trust me though, Mark is able to take that 52.4 hours of energy and squish it all into a half hour show.

The shows are part musical live performance and part...something else. Ever seen someone ride their keyboard like a horse, twirling a microphone cord over his head like a lasso? Ever seen an enactment of a keyboardist approaching his keyboard in the wild, using a chair to fend off it's attacks while he plugs it in? Ever see a keyboardist hold his keyboard out to the bass player so she can kick it to make some improv musical effects?

If you haven't, then you haven't seen Mark Mallman live. And you-you-you really outta.

Musically, Mark Mallman mixes Pop Rocks with Orange Fanta and shakes the hell out of it. In other words, a sweet, sticky colorful mess that will haunt you for days. But check it out yourself: you can hear his latest work "Between the Devil and Middle C" on his website http://www.mallman.com/, (check out his blog while you're there...) and you can buy it directly from the (Mall)man himself: http://www.tradebit.com/download.php/826791.

And finally, this message from the Man of Mall himself:





Art Is Resistance
-Zero

Labels: music reviews, Praise

As The Demonslayer's Handbook nears completion, I have found myself casting the net of Googleness into the icy vastness of the interweb, hunting for morsels of information about what the hell I'm supposed to do with this stack of 120,000 words.

There's plenty of info out there on the process of landing a book deal, and you can get some good stuff from writers who have been through the whole rigamarole, but if you asked me for one source which would give you the layman's low-down on agents/inquirys/submissions/slushpiles/publications and everything leading up to any kind of "Book Deal"...

I would send you to Miss Snark. I have read her blog posts every week for at least the past six months, and saved/memorized/internalized as much as I could.

Yesterday, Miss Snark announced her retirement from the blog, and while I'm flummoxed and saddened, I'm not too surprised. There are only so many ways you can keep answering the same questions.

Her archives will remain open for those who get to the point of seeking agents/publication, and seekers will find a lot of harsh reality there for them.

I'm sad to see her retire, but also pleased that she was aware enough to know when it was time to move on. Off the top of my head, I can give you the very best of her advice:

-Write well
-Follow the damn instructions
-Focus on the writing
-Query much and widely
-Keep Writing (well)

Goodbye Miss Snark, and thanks for the good laughs and the good info. I hope you and Killer Yapp have fun slurping from the Gin Pail with George Clooney...

Blog on,
-CZ

Labels: Authors, Cool Website, Praise, Writing

I love Neil Gaiman.

I mean in a *manly* sort of way...you know, like the movie "300", like, "Dude! You're an author, and I'm almost an author..I mean, we both write right? Let's go Man Up and run half-nekked across the moors with swords and cut down enemy forces outnumbering us one-hundred-and-fifty to one! See those three-hundred Spartans over there with their tiny little abs, HA! Dare they pit their ten or twelve tiny chicklet abs against my giant one? Why settle for a 6-pack when you can have a pony keg!"

Then Neil and I could open a can of Whoop-Ass, clean up, do lunch, and talk about writing. We would be sure to sit on opposite sides of the table though. Manly, like I said.

Anyway, I'm reading Neil Gaiman's 'Fragile Things' right now. It's quite good. I'm on page 3. I'll let you know when I have enough info to augment my opinion.

But I did read Good Omens long ago. Great book. Very funny. If you enjoy a 'dry as a funeral drum' sense of humor not too dissimilar from Douglas Adams, then you will like it. I have somehow managed to avoid reading the Sandman series; I keep meaning to stop over at Dreamhaven Books and pick up a copy of Ultimate Sandman when Neil is visiting there and tell him how much I love the first three pages of his new book, but our schedules don't seem to mesh.

How can you Not like Neil Gaiman? He's a famous author who doesn't act famous. He answers his fan mail. And he has a cool accent.

He links to cool things like this.

And this.

Meanwhile, I just rip him off, and post the cool links here.

(On the other hand, I do make sure to give him credits.)

On the other-other hand (?) I notice that Neil has enough fan mail to run his entire blog just off simply responding to them. I do get some questions from fans, but they don't seem very blog-worthy. Here is an example:

Dear Zero,

I just read the synopsis of your upcoming book, "The Demonslayer's Handbook". What the hell is wrong with you?

Signed,
Disturbed


See what I mean? Anyone who reads my blog should know that I don't like Disturbed. Their cover of Genesis's' "Land of Confusion" was pretty good though.

But Neil Gaiman gets the Ubercool Seal of Approval in my book.

Blog on,
-CZ

Labels: Authors, Book Review, Praise, Ubercool

There aren't many people I know who would run off to save endangered animals, but Karrie is one of them.

After hearing about a pet shelter in Kentucky overpopulated with dogs, and PUTTING THEM TO SLEEP because they can't afford to feed them, she did what everyone else did NOT. She called some friends, they rented some trucks, and as I type they are hauling dogs back to MN, and away from certain death.

Please check out this link to craigslist for the scoop.

Any help at all that you can get them (including blog links, any kind of media coverage, donations or adopting one of the dogs) would be greatfully appreciated. Even if you can only afford a couple bucks. And if you can't afford to make a donation, please fwd an e-mail, or make a blog post to get the word out. Unlike all those bullshit e-mails that promise you 'good luck!' this is certain to at least cover the monthly interest on your karmic debt.

Karrie, you are a saint, and I bet you have enough karma built up to retire on.

Blog on,
-CZ

Labels: Good Cause, Praise

If you read my post the other day about the service industry, you will appreciate this fine addendum by Trees, regarding her experiences.

While I did do a short stint as a coffee jerk in Minneapolis, bad experiences with customers were rare. Really rare. Which was why I was shocked to find what Trees verified was true: MN might just be "the land of ten-thousand dickheads". But Trees hits home that not letting their negativity bring you down is powerful mojo. Returning vinegar with sugar is more powerful yet (sometimes). Good to know. Thanks, Trees!


And if you want to read someone who can add another angle to my rant about L.A., check out this post by the Northern Misfit. More specifically leveled at the self-proclaimed 'critics' of the entertainment industry, Avindair suggests the movie critics make their own movie and get put on the hotseat.

Amen to that. I want to see Simon try to sing in front of judges on national TV, and I would like to be in the judges chair to hand him his ass. I would send that boy home, cryin to his mama! That goes for music, film, and writing reviewers as well.


Lastly, take your peepers for a walk on this site. The Geek Goddess Speaks! I'm looking forward to what happens here.

I'm also really digging Lifehacker (OK, I said Lastly before with the Geek Goddess link, but it's too late to correct it now, I've already uploaded this blogpost...) The advice is all over the place, but has the ultimate goal of making life easier, simpler, more organized, while still embracing your inner geek. For example, you could learn how to kill 90 days in the slammer, how to open a beer bottle with another bottle, How to make Windows stop annoying you, and that's just the useful stuff!

Blog on,
-CZ

Labels: Cool Website, Praise

Lemmy (Need I even mention his last name? Do you know anyone else named Lemmy?) Speaks out about the US presidential election. He says,

They are all the same anyway. All politicians are bastards anyway — every one of them. It doesn't matter who you vote for you'll always have a s*** government. All they are after is themselves and their pockets. They are all lying, cheating bastards

I couldn't agree more. I voted today, and I can happily tell you I did not vote for any Republi-crats, (nor did I vote for Raplh Nader).

I voted for Cthulhu, "Why vote for the lesser evil?"

Vote on,
-C

Labels: Politics, Praise

Agreed. This article from LockerGnome's Matt Hartley questions the buzz surrounding gmail, the new e-mail service from Google. I picked one up, but it wasn't easy to get, but here is a hint: having an account at Blogger helps! ;)
I think what Matt forgot to mention is that Google has good PR and a good corporate image; and for good reason.
First of all, their service works.
Second, their work is tastefully done. They don't flash advertisements or pop-ups at you. If Joe-Internet-User were to be asked how he/she wanted to see ads displayed, they would say: "Well, if we just HAVE to have them, there's some space off to the right, and keep the font size the same as the rest, and NO FLASHING and NO POPUPS!" Well, that's what Google did. Their site is simple, and easy on the eyes. Want to see how NOT to do it? How to be hard on the eyes How to look cluttered
Third, reading about the company, its hard not to like them. They are a bunch of real people who would be happy wearing jeans and working out of the garage. They don't take themselves too seriously. They don't think they are as great as they really are. (In an interview with the founder of Google, he rated the company a three on a scale of one to ten with ten being the best.) Also, they are up front about what they are doing. They also know that another group of 'nice folks wearing jeans and working out of the garage' could come along with better service and blow them right out of the virtual water.
Fourth, they are intelligently integrating their existing search engine service into the new e-mail service. Unlike places that have some spare server space and start selling e-mail accounts. G-mail takes full advantage of their search capabilities. Advertisements you see are searched out and filtered based on the content of the e-mail, which means they are much more likely to be releavant and useful to you.
These things add up to a company I would trust to provide e-mail service correctly. No doubt the current hype surrounding Gmail was meticulously planned by marketing, and designed through its 'exclusive invitation only' subscription method to have "a country club feel" as Matt puts it. In the end, Gmail is still a service that will make money for Google, but it doesn't seem like these people have sold their souls to Satan just yet.

Google on,
C

Labels: Cool Website, Praise

Wow. Amazing movie, requires quicktime and about 20 min. (If prompted, use "bugmenot" as username and password.)

-C

Labels: Cool Website, Praise, Ubercool, Videos