First time for everything

Story's End is now up at Quantum Shorts.

Bit of a time loop for the voting period, too. How apt: Online public voting on the International Category shortlist begins at 00.00.01 EST on December 20, 2013 and ends at 11:59:59 EST on January 10, 2013 (the "Voting Period").

Somedays...

Short Peace

The last movie I caught before leaving Japan in July of this year was the anime anthology, Short Peace, featuring, among the anime heavyweights, Otomo Katsuhiro. Each of the four films differed respectively from one another in terms of setting and theme, although in the line-up was explained to trace a coherent (if faint) line from the past and into the future. Of the four directors Otomo-san is slightly over-represented, having his hand in at least two of the stories, 『火要鎮（ひのようじん）』 and 『武器よさらば』, the last of which was adapted from a strip penned by Otomo-san long before I knew which end was supposed to go onto the paper. Technically five pieces, with an opening by Animatrix: Beyond director, Morimoto Koji, the piece that stands out the most in memory has to be Morita Shuhei's 『九十九』or, Tsukumo. Following an Edo-period tailor who gets waylaid in the middle of a stormy night, and is therefore forced to seek refuge in an old, abandoned temple, the film's delivery was singularly refreshing, in apparent answer, it seems, of the slogan that accompanied the anthology's publicity posters ("For the grown-ups who have forsaken anime"). The results was a little too successful, perhaps, although the darker themes explored immediately after could be seen as an exercise in range, if nothing else. The DVD hits the shelves in Japan, early January in 2014.

Happy Birthday Mr Moore

60 and looking pretty (well, technically this shot was from earlier this year, so).

Of things to come...

 

The Futures Anthology that came out seven, soon to be eight, years ago is a bit of a gem, with perhaps the most impressive list of contributors that you can ever hope to find under one book. Each entry is a potent idea sharpened and condensed to under a thousand words, ranging in impact and delivery but remaining distinct and memorable (some more than others, Nate Balding's Twenty2 and Bruce Sterling's The Ivory Tower come to mind instantly and, oh yes, so does Greg Bear's RAM SHIFT PHASE 2).

Roses in March

But when the pirate queen learns that her loved ones are held hostage in the nightmarish Berlin, she has no choice save to intervene directly, travelling with her ageing lover Broad Arrow Jack into the belly of the beastly metropolis. Within that alienated city await monsters, criminals and legends, including the remaining vestiges of Germany’s notorious ‘Twilight Heroes’, a dark Teutonic counterpart to Mina Murray’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen...

With The Bojeffries Saga coming in February, the early part of 2014 already looks to be a busy time. Not to mention the final installation of the Jimmy's End Cycle, His Heavy Heart, which delivers right around when Roses does.

#304

This came in today. While I knew that it carried a signature from Moorcock, but from Moore as well? Double the joy. Fantastic Metropolis is currently down, will link back to Moore's smashing intro some time later.

Sitting comfortably?