“Afterhell: Dark Descent” has been nominated in the Storytelling category of the 2006 Just Plain Folks Music Awards! Just Plain Folks is a community of people in the business of making and distributing music around the world, and they have gone through over 25,000 albums, submitted by creators in 105 countries to come up with nominations in 81 different categories.

The judges were given one primary criteria in reviewing the albums submitted: “Does it move you?” We are very pleased and proud that “Dark Descent” moved the Just Plain Folks judges enough to merit a nomination!

The final results will be announced at the Just Plain Folks Music Awards in early November.

Newsflash for the neocon apologists in the audience:  Co-opting 9/11 for political purposes is poor ethics.  Lying about it is downright sinful.

ABC Television is going to ram some steamin’ hot propaganda down Lady Liberty’s throat, celebrating 9/11 like a horny Mongol horde.

“ABC, what is best in life?”

“To crush your enemies, see demm driven buh-fore you, and ta hear deh lamentation uff deh women!”

Let’s contrast such cynical knee-biting of the national psyche with a taste of hard facts, hm?

How 9/11 changed America: In statistics
To break the numbers down:

A) Defense spending has gone up $50 billion for every year since.
B) Mainstream news media report on Osama bin Laden, public enemy numero uno, less and less every year.
C) The airline industry has only just begun to recover.
D) The number of hate crimes against Muslims has quintupled.
E)  President George W’s approval rating is lower than Clinton’s at his worst…and has been lower for a few years.

9/11: Five Years Later
A study by Columbia University researchers reveals the following:

A)  Bush’s poll numbers go up whenever the American public is scared.
B) The number of terror alerts increases around national elections

“When you have media organs viewing fear-mongering as a payday,
senior politicians seeing fear-mongering as sound political strategy,
and terrorists considering fear-mongering as a victory unto itself,
where are citizens expected to find a voice of reason?”

–Matthew T. Felling, media director for the Center for Media and Public Affairs. 

I felt compelled to put work on hold long enough to blog a few things.

One of the less pleasant aspects of adulthood is experiencing the pain of watching our elders pass on, like Frodo and Samwise witnessing the Passing of the Elves.  And when it’s someone we don’t really know, only revered or worshipped, that emotional distance provides the luxury of being possessive. 

When Jim Henson died, for example, I was talking with some fellow fans who talked about him as if he were a close friend.  But they’d never spoken to him, never written to him. 

“Oh, Jim meant so much to me.”

“Wait,” I’d often say.  “Did you know him?”

“No, but I feel so close to him.”

This happened a lot.  The chills got colder each time.

I bring all that up to acknowledge that certain degree of presumption, delineating for future reference the distinction between claiming an idol for yourself and paying one’s respects.  I want to do the latter, you see.

First, the less obvious.  Actor Glenn Ford died yesterday, remembered by family, friends, and hundreds of characters that he gently made his own.  He made a few cinematic forays into urban dread in things like The Blackboard Jungle.  And thanks to his performance as Clark Kent’s dad in the 1978 Superman, I can’t help but feel his passing.

On August 25, screenwriter Joseph Stefano also died.  He’s going to be most likely remembered for scaring oodles of people in two really cool ways.  He wrote the screenplay that Alfred Hitchcock used to make Robert Bloch‘s novel Psycho into a silver screen masterwork.  It was Stefano’s idea to follow Marion Crane from her day job to her nighttime stopover at the Bates Motel, only to make a fatal appointment with Mrs Bates in the shower.  God, I remember the first time I saw that scene.  I was ten.  I was frozen in place.  And I wanted to run.

Joseph Stefano was also a co-creator and major contributor to “The Outer Limits,” the original TV series in 1963.  My understanding of the behind-the-scenes business is vague, but I gather that he gradually became frustrated with the direction of the series, especially in its second year which is when he left it.  But in his wake, the original show had a uniquely dark, almost Gothic take on science fiction.  Among my favorite episodes is one of his stories, “Nightmare.”

I stake no claims and make no demands, save one — that they are worth remembering.  It’s sad to see them go, but they left us with some cool memories. 

Sorry for the long, long absence.  This summer has been almost as busy for us as last year’s.

Not only have we started preliminary work on Afterhell Volume 3, Jamie and I are each contributing several scripts to the Willamette Radio Workshop.  So far most of them have a horror element to them.  If you’re in the Portland, OR area near the end of October, you can see a couple of them performed live.

In the meantime, let me give a plug to a couple of cool cyberspaces.  The Carnival of Wicked Writers is a message forum serving the contributors, readers, admirers, and transitory specters of the indie Wicked Karnival Magazine.  They’ve been welcoming, encouraging, and thoroughly warped supporters of our series very early on.  Unfortunately, thanks to the workload, I’ve gone from regular poster to lurker to the cyber-equivalent of the Loch Ness monster.  Horror fans with a taste of graphic art and even more graphic writing should give it a look.

For my next plug, Drytear.NET:  They e-mailed me, said some nice things (always a good way to get my attention), and invited me to their message board as well, apparently undeterred by the fact that my cyber-presence rivals that of a neutrino particle.  They have a place for everything there, including a taste for horror.  Writers, poets, gamers, readers, thinkers, shapers, and makers are welcome there.

Now if you’ll excuse me, there’s an art exhibition in Boston that requires my attention….

Right, let’s remind everyone I’m still alive, neh?

Courtesy of cyber_istari and ayeshalan:

• Bold all of the following TV shows which you’ve ever seen 3 or more episodes of in your lifetime.
• Bold and italicize a show if you’re positive you’ve seen every episode of it.
• If you want, add up to 3 additional shows (keep the list in alphabetical order). (Mine are marked with an *)

Working with our distributor, Portland’s own excellent CD Baby, we have made “Afterhell: Dark Descent” available for download on a number of online music sites! So if you’ve been waiting to check out our pilot effort, or just need a second copy for your MP3 player of choice, now’s the time.

I have confirmed that “Dark Descent” is available on the following sites. The link should take you directly to the “Dark Descent” page on each site:

BuyMusic@buy.com
Melo.pl (a Polish-language site)
AOL MusicNow
Tradebit
And of course, the granddaddy of them all, Apple iTunes!

Because of the structure of tracks on “Afterhell: Volume 2,” it’s not practical for us to have that disc distributed digitally … you’ll just have to get it the old-fashioned way.

Over the weekend, the results for this year’s Mark Time Awards came in.

We didn’t get the Gold Ogle.  That went to the Willamette Radio Workshop for William S. Gregory’s brilliant adaptation of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde.  We know these folks.  They were winners long before they ever got an award.  Losing to them is a small victory.

In the meantime…, okay, so we didn’t get a mention. Not surprising, I guess. We’re the new kids on the block. Totally fresh material.  Nobody knows us from Cain or Abel.   And we’re about as politically correct as eye surgery. 

We’ll just have to get darker.  Volume 3 will do just that.

Now if I can just get all this other work done….

Sorry to all and sundry for being scarce.  Your pains, pleasures, and other p-words have not gone unnoticed.  Just lots of work to be done.  I’m like Gandalf that way…maybe more like Sir Ian McKellan’s Gandalf, the one that takes only a few edits instead of 17 years to get back to you.  (Oh boo hoo, you Fourth Age purists — you loved it, baby.)

Anyway, now’s the day when we folks in the US o’ A make a big to-do.  Luckily it’s turned out to be a good day so far.

Space Shuttle Discovery is in orbit, safe and sound.  Not a peep from that stupid fuel tank.  Yeah, I know — it’s obsolete tech, never worked right, we have no business in space, yadda yadda.  The crew are fine.  With luck, they’ll be just as fine in three weeks.

I wanted to note the holiday this time.   Here’s a special something…for George and Karl.

The Universe speaks in many languages, but only one voice.
The language is not Narn or Human or Centauri or Gaim or Minbari.

It speaks in the language of hope. It speaks in the language of trust.
It speaks in the language of strength, and the language of compassion.
It is the language of the heart and the language of the soul.
But always it is the same voice.

It is the voice of our ancestors speaking through us.
And the voice of our inheritors waiting to be born.
It is the small, still voice that says we are One.

No matter the blood, no matter the skin,
No matter the world, no matter the star,
We are One.
No matter the pain, no matter the darkness,
No matter the loss, no matter the fear.
We are One.

Here, gathered together in common cause
We agree to recognize this singular truth and this singular rule:
That we must be kind to one another.

Because each voice enriches us and ennobles us,
And each voice lost diminishes us.
We are the voice of the universe, the soul of creation,
The fire that will light the way to a better future.

We are One.

–J. Michael Straczynski
Babylon 5:  “The Paragon of Animals”

And yes, I’m still angry.

Hi, folks…first, I should apologize to any prospective writers for the series.  I promised several of them that I’d make a revised (i.e. completely written) set of submission guidelines. 

Yes, I have been watching this year’s World Cup.  No, that’s not the reason for the delay. 

John Lennon wasn’t kidding when he wrote, “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”  I was expecting June to be a slow month, but it just exploded.  Suddenly there’ve been lots of demands on my time and, since the wrist on my mousing hand has been smarting, a much greater need for me to wear my MouseMitts.  Lots of scribbling, lots of typing.  No future.

So rest assured, all interested parties.  I’ve broken my promise and I’m sorry.  But I haven’t forgotten.  I’ll make the guidelines for Afterhell submissions available…whenever I do.  Expect me when you see me.