| dream in sepiatone |
[Jun. 11th, 2009|01:28 pm] |
Google washed me up on this shore - if anyone knows the answer to this, I bet it's one of you folk.
Ten or fifteen years ago, when Google was not what it is now, I acquired "How Much For Just The Planet", and fell passionately in love. I have never met a set of good lyrics that I didn't immediately try to set, and the results were in most cases satisfactory, but the only one I was ever able to track down the real original tune to was the one the robot sings. Fast forward to now; found the book again, remembered all my old tunes, but I'm still not having any luck finding them. This leaves me with a threefold question:
- Does anyone know what the rest of the songs were based on, if they were based on anything at all?
- If they're totally original lyrics and not parodies, has anyone else ever written tunes for them?
- I would love to give credit, and royalties, where they are due should I ever take it into my head to bring my version of "Monochrome" to the piano bar. Who would I contact?
Thanks in advance for any light you can shed on it. |
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| Mike in dreamland |
[Apr. 19th, 2009|12:17 pm] |
I was sorting through some old LJ entries today, looking for a link to a photo, and ran across this post about a dream I'd had about Mike. (I'll link rather than copy, because the comments on the original post contains a link to a dream somebody else had about Mike.)
Did he show up in your dreams? A number of people told me they dreamed about him being at conventions, chatting. |
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| Roomba varieties |
[Apr. 18th, 2009|11:09 am] |
I just ran across this comment of Mike's from an old Making Light thread about the Roomba and its then-new stablemate, the Scooba.
nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/007292.html#115843
---------------
Roomba -- vacuums floors
Scooba -- washes floors
Loomba -- reweaves carpeting
Doomba -- eats dropped rings and other jewelry
Voomba -- cleans everything really fast, but requires a Cat in a Hat
Looba -- cleans bathrooms
Grooba -- creates mass havoc among other furniture
Mooba -- milks cows
Rooba -- carries a small version itself in a pouch
Pooba -- cleans up after Fido
Poo-Bah -- sings Gilbert & Sullivan while trying to intimidate the rug
Doobieba -- hides your stash ------------------
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| A Toast to Mike at Minicon on Friday Night |
[Apr. 9th, 2009|11:51 am] |
OK. Tomorrow, April 10, would have been John M. Ford's fifty-second birthday. He always celebrated at Minicon, sometimes with his birthday-sharer Dave Langford. In honor of Mike, we'll drink a toast at 10 p.m. either in the consuite or in the little porch in front of the consuite. (The consuite is in one of the cabanas again, right? So we'll play it by ear, depending on how crowded it is and how many of us there are.)
Before we make the toast, we'll read his poem, "Against Entropy" aloud. Bring a copy if you can. Here it is:
The worm drives helically through the wood
And does not know the dust left in the bore
Once made the table integral and good;
And suddenly the crystal hits the floor.
Electrons find their paths in subtle ways,
A massless eddy in a trail of smoke;
The names of lovers, light of other days --
Perhaps you will not miss them. That's the joke.
The universe winds down. That's how it's made.
But memory is everything to lose;
Although some of the colors have to fade,
Do not believe you'll get the chance to choose.
Regret, by definition, comes too late;
Say what you mean. Bear witness. Iterate.
And here's how that poem came to be, in case you don't know. Mike was amazing that way. He could write a darned fine Declaration of Unity, too, and his recipe for Hot Gingered Pygmy Mammoth and Jumbo Shrimp Salad will threaten your solemnity in a big way. He was a fine Mike, and we miss him very much.
So. We'll see you at ten tomorrow night, Minneapolis time, if you're at Minicon and want to join in the reading of the poem and a toast. If you're elsewhere, please join in as well, and post to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) nemesis_draco or my LJ, if you'd like to be figuratively standing with the rest of us remembering Mike.
(crossposted from my own LJ) |
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| Wikipedia |
[Aug. 31st, 2008|07:53 pm] |
I got the CDs to "The Dresden Files" and like a lot of things (in this world) it made me think of Mike. While looking up the show I noticed that on the list of fiction set in Chicago http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fiction_set_in_Chicago, "Last Hot Time" is not listed. While I don't care to have editing privileges on Wikipedia I figure at least one of you does. It is also not listed on the urban fantasy page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_fantasy.
The way we live on is in the memories of others, and any additional listing I see as good, any volunteers? |
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| The day's not over yet |
[Apr. 10th, 2008|08:22 pm] |
I knew I had this in my old correspondence somewhere.
In September '98 I bought my first Palm Pilot, which in a conversation soon after Mike quickly likened to an itty-bitty Etch-a-Sketch (Graffiti(tm), and all that), so when not long after that someone else sent me the Y2K Etch-a-Sketch Humor post I forwarded it to him... and found this in my email the next day (Mike's emendations in blue):
We have defined a lower cost alternative for the conversion to new computers that will address the Y2K (Year 2000) problem:
The goal is to remove all computers from the desktop by Jan, 1999.
Instead, everyone will be provided with an Etch-A-Sketch for Windows(tm), a new product from the Microsoft Corporation's There Must Be A Way to Get Money out of the Luddites Division(tm). There are many sound reasons for doing this:
1. No Y2K problems
2. No technical glitches keeping work from being done.
3. No more wasted time reading and writing emails.
4. Manual features the lovable Muppets.
Thank you.
Frequently Asked Questions from the Etch-A-Sketch for Windows(tm) Help Desk:
(to which the original answer to all but the last was "pick it up and shake it.")
Q: My Etch-A-Sketch has all of these funny little lines all over the screen. What do I do?
A: You need Microsoft Peer-and-Play compatible eyeglasses (contact lenses available early 2004).
Q: How do I turn my Etch-A-Sketch for Windows(tm) off?
A: Attempts to turn off any Microsoft product may result in fines, prosecution, destruction of personal property, injury, and death, usually in that order.
Q: What's the shortcut for Undo?
A: Mircosoft osurs dont mark sitamkes..
Q: How do I create a New Document window?
A: What was the matter with your old one?
Q: How do I set the background and foreground to the same color?
A: Rumors that Mr. Gates has poor color sense are slander, unless you expressed them in a message to Microsoft Customer Service, in which case they are libel.
Q: What is the proper procedure for rebooting my Etch-A-Sketch for Windows(tm)?
A: Implications that a Microsoft product would ever hang, crash, or cause your cat to commit suicide by leaping on a hot Pentium chip will be responded to by a visit from Bob(tm), the Microsoft Smiling Enforcer.
Q: How do I delete a document on my Etch-A-Sketch for Windows(tm)?
A: A new Win98 enhancement, Conceptual Delete, makes it easier than ever to delete documents permanently! Merely look away from the screen briefly. For long documents, you may wish to go for coffee.
Q: How do I save my Etch-A-Sketch for Windows(tm) document?
A: How much money are you willing to spend?
[10/06/1998, in email]
Vista, feh.
Happy Mike's birthday, all. |
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| I wrote this on the anniversary of Mike's death. |
[Nov. 7th, 2007|12:36 am] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Cedar Falls | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  sad | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Everybody Knows - Concrete Blonde cover. | ] |
And sent it off to Making Light, where it never got posted - then got insanely busy through October.
I give it here to the Society, in free usage. If any money is ever made off of this, I ask that half the profits go to the library fund.
====
He shew'd us dreamburst
Not so long as we'd like
Raconteur abetting thirst
We hope again to see the like
The challenges of Euterpe*
Barely shows us adequate for art.
Inspired, but without his quiet example
Words, once joyous, pierce the heart
Though joyous dwelt, given freely
Perhaps this is the lesson learnt?
I think he'd find it unseemly,
To hide our hearts from dreamburst
Though we had him not so long as liked
In gratitude, thanks for the miracles, Mike. |
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| A Year |
[Sep. 25th, 2007|06:21 pm] |
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It's been a year and I still miss him. I miss his written words in Making Light, his verbal words at Minicon, and the words that he left to grow inside my mind. I was able to make a small memorial donation to his Memorial Fund at the Mpls Library, which is nothing compared to what he gave us. |
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| Heat of Fusion |
[May. 21st, 2007|04:16 pm] |
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I turned up another copy of Heat of Fusion and Kevin told me he had more people ask for his copies than he had copies, so I thought I'd offer it here. Free for the cost of shipping. You can email me at marilee@mjlayman.com. |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 25th, 2007|02:44 pm] |
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An odd question: In the course of commenting on someone's entry, I was reminded of a conversation I once had at a convention, in which I was told that John M. Ford was an extra in Breaking Away. The person with whom I was speaking offered no further verification, and didn't specify any particular scenes in which to look for him; is there anyone here who can confirm (or Snope) this rumor? |
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| A memento |
[Jun. 23rd, 2007|02:46 pm] |
I was cleaning my office, and came across a postcard in Mike's handwriting. It's postmarked 28 June 1994, and depicts a doorway from the abbey church of Moutiers-Saint-Jean, near Dijon. The text is as follows:
"Experiamus tempus mirabilis.
Volanus hic sua tua.
Camera nostra propinque
comitatus conventus.
Amo, amas, amat,
M. Elise
Teresa
[obscured by Post Office fu, but presumably] Patrick"
Pamela |
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| Tarot as Story Frame |
[May. 4th, 2007|04:38 pm] |
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So far in Heat of Fusion, there's been two stories that use the tarot court cards as the story frame. I don't remember this in the other books of Mike's I've read -- was this common? And are they just story frames as I'm seeing them, or was the Tarot itself more important to him? |
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| The John M. Ford Automonous Exploration Vehicle |
[May. 4th, 2007|04:33 pm] |
I'm reading the copy of Heat of Fusion that I got from Kevin and at the end of a short story for Nature, Mike's short bio reads:
Autonomous Exploration Vehicle John M. Ford was one of the first private citizens to undergo cortical shift, first to a netlinked mainframe, passing through a series of mobile installations to an AEV hull.
That's a nice way to think about his death, isn't it? Out there exploring the galaxy. |
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| If you can be there, read one for me |
[Apr. 9th, 2007|09:54 pm] |
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Mike would have turned 50 tomorrow. They are having a reading at Dreamhaven books. I can't be there since I am 705 miles away. But if I were there I would read SF Clichés VI: Immortality. I read it when we spread my father's ashes and I had "Heat of Fusion" opened to that page at Dia de los Muertos service at my church last October. |
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| John M. Ford Memorial Reading and Reception |
[Apr. 2nd, 2007|12:29 pm] |
DreamHaven will be hosting a John M. Ford reading and reception on Tuesday, April 10, 6:30 PM
This would have been Mike's 50th birthday.
Join us for readings, conversation and refreshments.
DreamHaven is located at 912 W. Lake St.
You can reach us at 612-823-6161 or email us at dream@dreamhavenbooks.com |
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