1. Peter Bebergal, author of the new book Season of the Witch: How The Occult Saved Rock and Roll, which I recently purchased and which I will be reviewing in depth later this month, also recently wrote an edition of The New Yorker's "Page Turner" column, in which he gives a very good overview of the career of the "high fantasy" author Michael Moorcock, whom he calls The Anti-Tolkien.
From his first job, editing a Tarzan fan magazine at the age of seventeen, to his seventieth novel, which will be released in January, he has essentially written the other style guide for modern fantasy. Moorcock is the author of an almost uncountable number of short stories; he’s edited anthologies, written critical books of nonfiction and had his novel “Mother London” shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize. With that output, Moorcock is likely to have written some duds, but he is quick to acknowledge his own limitations. He once wrote, “I think of myself as a bad writer with big ideas, but I’d rather be that than a big writer with bad ideas”
If you're looking for some compulsively readable, unapologetically fun genre reading material, I can wholeheartedly recommend Moorcock's entire Elric Saga as some of the best times I've ever spent reading fantasy. Bebergal's article serves as an excellent primer for anyone interested in exploring this writer's work any further.
2. Today, we're beginning a new tradition! From this edition forth, the first selection for the day's Suggested Reading List will be an article or text-based interview of some sort, preferably of an informative nature, but entertaining, regardless. The third selection will be, as it has been for a while, a comedic short video, likely but not exclusively from [adult swim]. In the middle, the second selection will henceforth be a video of a "serious" nature; probably a documentary of some sort. Today's "serious" video selection is What's In My Baggie?, a documentary about the dangers of the burgeoning "research chemicals" movement. It's sometimes harrowing, always informative, and very much worth watching and sharing with your more experimental loved ones.
3. And here, once again, we finish things off with our now traditional selection from the [adult swim] programming bloc! Today, behold the awesome power of the BROOM-shaka-laka!
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