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Underground comic book pioneer, Harvey Pekar, died today. He was 70 years old. His most famous series “American Splendor” was an autobiographical chronicle that started in the late 70s and lasted several decades.

Actor, Paul Giamatti, played Pekar in the 2003 movie adaptation of Pekar’s “American Splendor.”

If you haven’t seen it, you should. It’s a pretty good movie.

I discovered a new science fiction magazine online that publishes original and reprinted science fiction stories and interviews.

According to the Light Speed Magazine “about us” page:

Lightspeed is an online magazine focusing exclusively on science fiction. Here you can expect to see all types of science fiction, from near-future, sociological soft sf, to far-future, star-spanning hard sf, and anything and everything in between. No subject will be considered off-limits, and we encourage our writers to take chances with their fiction and push the envelope.

Each month at Lightspeed, we bring you a mix of originals and reprints, and featuring a variety of authors—from the bestsellers and award-winners you already know to the best new voices you haven’t heard of yet. When you read Lightspeed, it is our hope that you’ll see where science fiction comes from, where it is now, and where it’s going.

Lightspeed also features a variety of nonfiction features, fiction podcasts, and Q&As with our authors that go behind-the-scenes of their stories.

Our regular publication schedule each month includes two pieces of original fiction and two fiction reprints, along with four nonfiction articles. Fiction posts on Tuesdays, nonfiction on Thursdays.

I hope they can sustain their business model, because they have some great content so far.

You can also donate to help keep them going.

Enjoy.

- Dave

“There he goes. One of God’s own prototypes. A high-powered mutant of some kind never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die. ” – Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (Hunter S Thompson)

I can’t think of a better place for this Sean Hannity book, can you?

Via the Portland Mercury

A fan site for David Foster Wallace, writer of Infinite Jest, is running a motivational poster contest.  It is quite funny if you’ve read the book (or most of the book as I have…1090 pages…Jesus Christ).

May you never “hear the squeak”.

Enjoy.

- Dave

I just saw the film adaptation of John Krakauer’s book,Into the Wild and enjoyed it.

As with many film adaptations, it does not follow the story verbatim, but it does a good job of capturing the spirit of the book. The story follows Christopher McCandless on his journey into the wilderness of Alaska.

— MOVIE & BOOK SPOILERS BELOW —

From Publisher’s Weekly:

After graduating from Emory University in Atlanta in 1992, top student and athlete Christopher McCandless abandoned his possessions, gave his entire $24,000 savings account to charity and hitchhiked to Alaska, where he went to live in the wilderness. Four months later, he turned up dead. His diary, letters and two notes found at a remote campsite tell of his desperate effort to survive, apparently stranded by an injury and slowly starving. They also reflect the posturing of a confused young man, raised in affluent Annandale, Va., who self-consciously adopted a Tolstoyan renunciation of wealth and return to nature.

I find Chris’ idealism refreshing and inspiring. He made a lot of mistakes along the way, like taking a .22 and a bag of rice to survive in Alaska. Ultimately inexperience coupled with idealism killed him, but that doesn’t make his adventure any less inspiring. I think if Chris would have made a couple decisions differently in Alaska, he’d be alive to talk about it today.

Sean Penn wrote, produced and directed the screenplay with writing help from John Krakauer along the way. The movie was beautifully shot with gorgeous sweeping shots of the Alaskan wilderness. Penn has an eye for capturing the powerful landscape in the movie so well that it seems as if Chris’ surroundings become another character in the movie.

If you need a bit of inspiration during the holidays of mass comsumption, give this movie a try. I think you might like it.

Links of interest: movie website, book on Amazon, rotten tomatoes review, Wikipedia page for Chris McCandless.

-Dave

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. – Henry David Thoreau

According to the blog readability test, this site is readable at the elementary school level.

Somehow, I believe them.

-Dave

Enter the title and author into this search and the online book database will compare what other readers (who have read your book) have also enjoyed. Give it a whirl. It’s pretty neat.

Link (via Lifehacker)

The purpose of this brilliant marketing campaign by the Wyoming Libraries is to promote their searchable online Chilton automotive database (a useful thing of you happen to be the handy type who knows the difference between a distributor cap and a baseball cap).

According to their site:

Mudflap girl stickers meant to be put on vehicles, were sent to auto repair stores across the state advertising the Chilton database.

I tip my hat to the folks who marketed this in Wyoming. Very clever.

Link (from Neat-o-rama)

Eustace is living the life that I have secretly dreamed about living for years. To be surrounded by the sights and sounds of the wild is something that appeals to my inner mountain man. I can’t really explain it. Although, the notion of living through harsh winters in the wild with only a teepee to protect me from the elements doesn’t sound like a walk in the park. It’s more romantic in notion than in reality, I’m sure. My rational side – the one that enjoys warm socks out of the dryer, thai lemon chicken and internet movie rentals thinks this idea is truly absurd.

My rational side is probably right, but it doesn’t hurt to dream.

When I walk though the Memorial Park here in Houston and smell that musty scent of fallen leaves or see the sun filter down through the canopy of leaves and smog, I say to myself, “you should move to the mountains and live in peace and harmony with nature.” Then some jackass usually drives by in a BMW honking his horn at some other jackass who cut him off in a Mercedes.

At some point in this inner dialog (of which I am playing both parts) I realize the mountains have very poor broadband internet coverage and virtually no access to a decent shrimp spring roll with spicy peanut sauce.

But damn it, the idea still appeals to me.

Anyhow, the book is well-written and inspiring.  If you like interesting character studies and adventure stories, you’ll probably like The Last American Man.

-Dave

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Now playing: Yo La Tengo – The Forest Green
via FoxyTunes