Author: Michael

Jay is gone

Jay Lake - Worldcon 2004I met Jay Lake at Worldcon 2004 in Boston, where I took the photo on the left that somehow ended up being on his Wikipedia page for the last few years. That’s also where I cried at a reading for the first (and so far only) time, when Jay read his story “The Angle of my Dreams.”

Now Jay’s made me cry again.

There was always a side of Jay that was larger than life, even when the repeated battles with cancer and chemo began to wear him down, but there was also a very human side to him that his many friends got to experience. I didn’t get to see him as often as I’d have liked over the last decade, but whenever our paths were going to cross at a convention I’d look forward to spending time with Jay’s sense of humor, his quick wit, and his kindness.

In between those times I was lucky enough to be able to get early looks at his novels, from a very alpha draft of TRIAL OF FLOWERS onward, even before I began working with his agent, Jennifer Jackson. Jay always made me feel like my feedback on his work was important, even when I wasn’t so sure of its worth myself. I still hope that someday more readers will get to experience the last novel he completed, CALAMITY OF SO LONG A LIFE, the first in the Sunspin sequence.

It’s hard to believe there won’t be more Jay, or more of his stories, but I’m be glad to have had the chance to know him and his work.

I’ll miss you, Jay. And I’ll always remember.

“And when I tell you to, jump into the sky. Just forget how to fall.” — from “Angle of my Dreams” by Jay Lake

 

2012 convention plans

This year I currently plan to attend:

At this point I’d say the first two on the list are pretty definite, Worldcon is probable, and WFC is still tentative (in part because I’m not thrilled that the hotel is way out near the 404/407 interchange and, according to Google Maps apparently requires two+ different buses (25+ min) to even get to the nearest TTC subway stop, which is Finch, in order to then get into actual Toronto).

Hope to see several of you at one (or more) of these!

So very true

Originally published at Wake Up. You can comment here or there.

Absolutely this:

One thing that’s been true since I’ve been paying attention is that everything The Left does is wrong. By The Left I mean everyone to the left of the basic governing power. Third Parties are bad, sitting out elections are bad, putting pressure on elected reps is bad, protesting is bad, primary campaigns are bad, media criticism might hurt their feefees and is bad, saying mean things about Rush Limbaugh is bad, actually discussing your views honestly is bad, etc. Obviously the failure of The Left to take control and run the country does suggest that it is doing something wrong, but no one ever really offers much constructive advice other than…please STFU.

You have the right to obey

Originally published at Wake Up. You can comment here or there.

Digby says:

Everyone’s written about this “don’t touch my junk” story, but this new development is so sadly in line with my thesis about these things that it’s almost a cliche. When I wrote about it over the week-end, I pointed out that this was the latest in a series of steps to a police state — the building of a police bureaucracy, the intimidation and the incoherence of security theatre designed to confuse citizens and indoctrinate them to the idea that they should unquestioningly submit to absurd directives from authorities. It’s how you control a populace.

A worthy rant

Originally published at Wake Up. Please leave any comments there.

Atrios on the current economic situation:

This is a righteous rant pointing out that what we have is a complete fucking fail. It’s a failure of our political institutions, of our financial system, of our economy as structured, of the economics profession, of unelected elite GOP Daddies who are supposed to fix things, of the media, of the whole fucking thing. Extended 9.5%+ unemployment is not ok. It means something is seriously fucking wrong, and the people in charge are unwilling or for whatever reason (including being idiots) unable to fix the problem.

That pretty much sums it up.

The collapse of Imperial America

Originally published at Wake Up. Please leave any comments there.

From Glenn Greenwald’s piece titled “What collapsing empire looks like:”

Does anyone doubt that once a society ceases to be able to afford schools, public transit, paved roads, libraries and street lights — or once it chooses not to be able to afford those things in pursuit of imperial priorities and the maintenance of a vast Surveillance and National Security State — that a very serious problem has arisen, that things have gone seriously awry, that imperial collapse, by definition, is an imminent inevitability?