New computer and off we go (and movie catchup)

My new desktop has been set up and it's weird to see my mail in outlook again. Still hoping that the emails/contacts will be pried off my old hard drive.

And tomorrow morning (if the weather permits-it's supposed to rain --hard) I will be off to the HP Lovecraft Film Festival in Portland, Oregon for the weekend. I will be online periodically.

Back Wed night late.


Movies I've seen lately:
The American with George Clooney, as a mysterious moody ...spy/assassin/whatever --it takes a while to figure out what--is being hunted by some Swedes and off he goes to Italy for a job and to hideout. This is a very European film-understated, not all that much action, with the only recognizable (to me) actor being Clooney. I loved it.

On netflix:
The Lookout, watched because Joseph Gordon-Levitt of Inception is in it and someone here recced it. Good movie but he's sooo young in it that I couldn't drool. Young guy from rich family is brain damaged in a car accident and now works as a janitor in a bank. He's "befriended" by an older guy who has plans to use the kid.

The Men Who Stare at Goats was much better than I expected. A satire about government conspiracies with George Clooney as a trained psychic ninja (basically) and Ewan McGregor (with an American accent that keeps slipping) as a journalist trying to find out the TRUTH.

Ponyo a sweet, but less than topnotch Hayao Miyazaki movie about a little boy and a princess who happens to be a goldfish. Love ensues. Wizard daddy disapproves. Moms come to the rescue.

FANTASTIC FICTION AT KGB ONLINE RAFFLE

FANTASTIC FICTION AT KGB ONLINE RAFFLE

Press Release
For Immediate Release

Contacts:
Ellen Datlow, Fantastic Fiction at KGB co-host,
Email: Datlow [at] datlow [dot] com,
Matthew Kressel, Fantastic Fiction at KGB co-host,
Email: matt [at] sensesfive [dot] com

The Hosts of Fantastic Fiction at KGB will raffle off donations from well-known authors, editors, artists, and agents to support the reading series.

Event takes place from October 11th, 2010 through October 25th, 2010. Raffle tickets will be $1 each and can be purchased from www.kgbfantasticfiction.org

New York, NY (September 2010) – The hosts of the Fantastic Fiction at KGB reading series in New York City are holding a raffle to support the series. Well-known professionals have donated prizes (see Partial List of Prizes below), which will be raffled off in October. All proceeds from the raffle will help support the reading series, which has been a bright star in the speculative fiction community for more than a decade.
Raffle tickets will cost one dollar US ($1) and can be purchased at www.kgbfantasticfiction.org. You may purchase as many tickets as you want. Tickets will be available from October 11th, 2010 through October 25th, 2010. Sales will close at midnight (Eastern Daylight Time) on October 25th, and shortly afterward, winners will be drawn randomly from a digital "hat" and announced on the web. Prizes will be mailed to the lucky winners by the donors. (See a more detailed explanation in Raffle Rules).
Partial List of Prizes (a full list is available at the website)
• The Altered Fluid writers group will critique your short story
• Signed galley of Catherynne Valente's DEATHLESS & handmade necklace
• Signed copies of INSIDE STRAIGHT, BUSTED FLUSH, and SUICIDE KINGS by George R.R. Martin
• Your very own wormhole, with a certificate of authenticity by physicist Michio Kaku
• A used keyboard by Neil Gaiman signed to the winner
• A signed partial early draft of a manuscript by William Gibson
• Three unpublished stories by Michael Swanwick where you own the rights till 2015.
• Nancy Kress will critique your short story
• A carnivorous plant terrarium
• A Tuckerization by Richard Bowes
• Cat Rambo will critique your short story in the form of a poem
• One copy of each of the twelve titles published by ChiZine press in 2010
• Barry Goldblatt will critique your YA or middle-grade novel query
• Jeff & Ann VanderMeer are donating a signed copy of THE KOSHER GUIDE TO IMAGINARY ANIMALS along with a nice ceramic candy bowl, for use with your Candied Cthulhu bits! (recipe included)
• Two drawings by Tom Canty
• A session with Peter Straub's masseuse
• A session with Ellen Datlow's reflexologist
• A signed copy of THE WAY OF THE WIZARD, edited by John Joseph Adams
• And dozens more prizes on the website...

About KGB Fantastic Fiction
KGB Fantastic Fiction is a monthly reading series held on the third Wednesday of every month at the famous KGB Bar in Manhattan, hosted by Ellen Datlow and Matthew Kressel. The reading series features luminaries and up-and-comers in speculative fiction. Admission is always free.
Some of our past readers
Joyce Carol Oates, Lucius Shepard, Jeffrey Ford, Scott Westerfeld, Kelly Link, China Miéville, Nancy Kress, Jack Ketchum, Jack McDevitt, Stewart O’Nan, James Patrick Kelly, Barry N. Malzberg, Samuel (Chip) Delany, Holly Black, Michael Swanwick, Kit Reed, Peter Straub, Andy Duncan, Richard Bowes, Catherynne Valente, Ellen Kushner, Jeff VanderMeer, Naomi Novik, Elizabeth Bear, and many others.
A Brief History of the Series
Terry Bisson and Alice K. Turner started the KGB Fantastic Fiction reading series in the late 1990s, attempting to bring together mainstream writers with writers of speculative fiction in order to show, in Alice Turner’s words, “that at a certain level they were plowing exactly the same field.” In the spring of 2000 Ellen Datlow took over for Alice K. Turner and in August 2002 Gavin J. Grant, publisher of Small Beer Press, stepped in for Bisson when he moved to California. Matthew Kressel stepped in for Gavin in April of 2008.
Raffle Rules
Tickets will be on sale from October 11th through October 25th, midnight, Eastern Daylight Time. The raffle will be held on October 25th at midnight. (Winners will be announced as soon as possible after midnight.) Each item will be raffled off individually. You may purchase as many tickets per item as you would like. For example, you may purchase ten tickets for the “Neil Gaiman keyboard” and fifty tickets for the “William Gibson manuscript.”
Each ticket purchase increases your chances of winning. For example, if you purchase five tickets of the “Neil Gaiman keyboard” and a total of ten tickets have been sold, your odds of winning are 5 out of 10.
For each item, one winner will be chosen at random using a computerized random number generator. The winning names and prizes will be announced on the KGB Fantastic Fiction website.
The donor is responsible for mailing the prize to the winner. Please read the item description carefully before purchasing as some donors may not ship outside the United States.
All proceeds from the raffle go to support the reading series.
KGB Fantastic Fiction website: http://www.kgbfantasticfiction.org
Raffle Information website:
http://www.kgbfantasticfiction.org/kgb-raffle/
List of All Raffle Items online:
http://www.kgbfantasticfiction.org/store/

Contacts:
Ellen Datlow, Fantastic Fiction at KGB co-host, Email: Datlow [at] datlow [dot] com,
Matthew Kressel, Fantastic Fiction at KGB co-host, Email: matt [at] sensesfive [dot] com