…my book coming out this week, or this soundtrack coming out this week.
I suppose the good news is, if the book sells well enough, I could probably afford the soundtrack. 😆 We’re going on and on about it in the forums if you’re into that sorta thing.… Read more
It only took about four years (during which I’ve alternated between unemployment and nutty flip-flopping shifts, homeschooling and the boy being in day care full-time, madness, sadness, badness and blandness), but… it’s finally done.
It’ll be available at OVGE in June. I’ll have a very limited number of copies at the table. You’ll be able to get it on Lulu.com too. Anything beyond that – other conventions, signings, and so on – I have yet to nail down.
The book’s about Doctor Who, in case you hadn’t figured that bit out. This volume covers the television episodes from 1963 through the 2011 Christmas special. And it just covers Doctor Who – the spinoffs and audios are covered in the next volume, but that’s not due out until the end of 2013 (the second volume will also cover the 50th anniversary season). It’s an 8.5″ x 11″ trade paperback, over 350 pages long, and it’s not all episode guide – there are occasionally little essay pieces that don’t fit into a discussion of any particular story, season or “era.” It’s also not a straight copy of stuff from the web site – a lot of it has been significantly edited or just rewritten from the ground up. … Read more
theLogBook.com’s web master gives mad props to the guys who saved the TARDIS console, worries a bit about the guy who built the “Star Trek apartment,” rants some more about SOPA, and just generally takes you on a fantastic journey. Yeah.
Sound quality is much better this time; the secret is to keep the mic up by my eyebrows.
Listen here:
[sc_embed_player fileurl=”https://www.thelogbook.com/earl/podcast/madprops.mp3″]
Right-click here and “save as” to save to your hard drive or MP3 player; leave feedback in the forums.… Read more
As you might remember from yesterday’s post, two friends of mine from New Mexico sent me the Star Trek scratcher cards from the NM Lottery. What the heck, why not go ahead and scratch them off? What is there to lose on the deal?
Well, wait ’till you get a load of this, folks, ’cause I lucked out. Seriously!
Break out your best bubbly, and get ready to drink a toast. The party’s at my place! … Read more
It’s that most wonderful time of the year!… if you want to ogle my Christmas tree’s worth of Starfleet, that is. The tree went up on Saturday night, much to the boy’s delight, and thanks to Portia knocking the artificial tree off of its high storage shelf in the utility room (she’s a little climber) and chewing through some of its wiring (she’s a little menace to society), we had to get a new tree this year. The Mrs. insisted on getting a real one. It’s pretty, and it’s nice, but it was a huge pain in the butt to set up, and it’s shedding twigs and needles everywhere. Furthermore, the cats love it… with a little bit of seasoning. They’re biting small branches off the bottom of it. Obviously our cats have an anti-Christmas-tree jihad going on here.
The new lights that were purchased along with the tree are incompatible with the connectors for my box full of Hallmark Star Trek ornaments, so sadly, unless they’ve got stuff that works under its own power, they’re all “dark” this year, making the traditional picture-taking a challenge. The Christmas Starfleet is on silent running. … Read more
I showed these off in theLogBook.com Forums, might as well show them off here (even if they’re still works-in-progress – VWORP!1 and WARP!1 will both almost certainly undergo further tweaks, if not from-the-ground-up reshoots*).
As silly as it is to have covers done before there are finished books to go in ’em, it’s kind of a motivational thing for me. And maybe to anyone out there who’d wanna buy ’em.
I promised a downloadable PDF file of excerpts from each of these, plus the also-in-the-works Phosphor Dot Fossils book (let’s call that PDF!1 just for laughs), at OVGE; I’ll see about getting that done soonish.
* they’re actually heavily-treated, composited miniature photography with nifty lighting and crap. My grandfather would either nod in approval or shake his head and tell me I’m doin’ it wrong. Or both.… Read more
I do this once or twice a year as upcoming music releases line up like ducks in a row – very expensive ducks in a row, in some cases – just for giggles. And because the anticipation is part of the fun. And because you may want to have some participation in my anticipation. Okay, I’m done, let’s talk music. … Read more
Evan’s having a hard time sleeping, so daddy’s having a hard time sleeping. There’s some strange correlation there that I can’t put my finger on – maybe it’s the whole disrupting-daddy’s-sleep-by-coming-into-the-room-and-crawling-on-top-of-me-in-bed thing. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll love little E until I breathe my last, but man is it ever hard to sleep through a little 40-pound person climbing on top of you. Try it sometime (pending the availability of little 40-pound people in your immediate vicinity). You know I’m right.
Whiplash-inducing gearshift… CRUNCH! … Read more
As noted in the site’s news section today, a new CD of music from the third season of Doctor Who is due in about a month. Now, as much as I’m looking forward to that, I had to fess up that the music was yet another aspect of season 3 that just underwhelmed me a bit. It seemed to me like about 3 pieces of action music were written, and a few variations on Martha’s theme, and some other bits…and then all of the above were recycled relentlessly throughout the season. I’ll still be happy to pick up the CD, because at least all of this stuff was decent music, but on the tenth reiteration, it loses a little something. At this point, it’s almost like the more recognizable music from the original Star Trek – it’s kinda like “cue the Corbomite Maneuver cube music, there’s something sinister out there!” I love that they’ve got a whole orchestra on this show, but I am starting to wonder if perhaps Murray Gold shouldn’t rotate with someone else to do the writing. Even Dudley Simpson took a break once in a blue moon.
Speaking of TV composers who did a Ton Of Stuff, just got these the other day from the fine folks at Dennismccarthy.com:
Nifty stuff on each one. I’m still hoping that maybe we’ll actually see some real live Trek TV music sneak out the door this way, but I’m not holding my breath. Speaking of Trek music, I’ve finally reposted the Dennis McCarthy interview in the news archives here, and as a treat – well, I don’t know if you’ll think it’s much of a treat – I’ve included the original telephone recording of the interview from 1993. Some things to keep in mind about that interview include: (A) the fact that I was 20, and (B) I was at the height of my Trek geekdom. If I had the chance to redo that interview – and don’t think that I haven’t approached him about doing a new one – I’d be a little more even-handed about it. There are some somewhat insinuating questions in there on my part – oh, so the producers tell you when to wipe your butt, do they? – that come across as someone who’d read a few Film Score Monthly editorials too many. And, call it perverse, I know so much more about the other, non-soundtrack music he’s done that I would broaden the line of questioning, though I still chuckle at catching him off guard with that Tommy Flander thing and still getting a pretty in-depth response about it. (I think that’s actually my favorite part of the whole thing, actually!) And of course, these days, there’d be questions to ask like his feelings on only getting to do one of the Trek movies (which I think was, musically, one of the best ones of the whole series, though I’m not sure anyone else will ever give it that due), the Enterprise budget cuts that forced him to “go synth” for much of the final season, and stuff like Sliders and Stargate SG-1, among others. When I first got a CD burner – the stereo component kind, mind you, not the computer drive – that interview, which I’d kept on cassette for about 6 years at the time, was one of the very first things I burned to CD-R, and that CD-R turned up during housecleaning not so long ago. So there it is, an interesting little time capsule from my past. (At the time, the interview originally appeared in a text file called “the LogBook Master Index of Soundtracks” which was bundled up with a distribution ZIP file and sent across the pre-internet BBS file-forwarding networks.)
I really wish I had the chance to do more interviews for the site. Maybe someday – for right now, the only podcasts you’re likely to get out of me anytime real soon will probably be diaper changes, which technically should really be poocasts. 😆… Read more
Just wanted to drop a line to Mike, Ron, Lisa and the Star Trek: Origins gang on the morning of their first filming. Much as I’d love to be there for that, I’ll just have to “settle” for blowing stuff up in post-production.
Good luck, we’re all counting on you!… Read more
