BOOKCELLAR NOTES (4/8/03 Tues):

CDs played today:
- Jackie McLean DESTINATION OUT (1963 jazz recommended by Gary Giddins in VILLAGE VOICE)
- Ice Cube GREATEST HITS (Xgau: A minus)
- Albinioni 12 CONCERTI A CINQUE, Op. 5

---Finally back down here. The backroom cleanup project has to be put on the back burner (I wish). At least I can reach the window now. Temps are supposed to get back to 70 later in the week. Then it will be great to open that sucker up. Now is the golden moment between when the mold and insects act up and when it is too cold to operate. (There is no heat in the back room.)

---Here now:
SPACE AND TIME #97, spr/03, (the magazine of fantasy, horror, and science-fiction; A.R. Morlan, Jeff Carlson, Terry McGarry, Jeffrey Goddin; Ligotti interview; more), new 5.00
---Details on #95 (which I still have in stock, as well as many other issues) are at the link above, but not #97, at least as of right now.

---Back in stock from River City (if you knew it was out of stock):
McCammon, Robert R. SPEAKS THE NIGHTBIRD, River City '02, (1st), (727-page novel), new in dj 27.95

---A typical reply to a question about what happened to someone’s order:
“I do have your order. I seem to have gone into self-imposed forced semi-retirement, considering my ability lately to keep up with business. I should expand my capabilities by taking on help instead of the continual erosion imposed by the ageing process. At any rate I will make it a point to get your order taken care of immediately. I will email you the result, as usual. Thanks for everything!”

---Afraid I watched the NCAA Finals last night. I could have done without it. Not only do I have to watch the game, but I have to hang in there through the Shining Moment video melange. It is so sad that that is about as good as it ever gets. Sad but glorious.

---It took me an hour to reconcile my checkbook, usually a snap procedure. Finally figured out I had written in a 285 where it should have been 258 - accounting for the $27 I kept coming up short. At least if it had been the bank which had erred I would have caught it, making it maybe worth the brainwrack.

---Email to Slovenia:
“I wish I had invested in a Slovenia-specific mutual fund. Last I heard things were looking good there. Maybe it was a situation where the only place to go was up. Can't say I care for the way things are going here. There do seem to be parallels with the rise of Hitler and Nazism. It was impossible to be apolitical then--except for being purged, you either had to leave or be loyal to the party/country.”
---To elaborate: Check out the 1981 German-Austrian movie MEPHISTO, wherein the actor/protagonist has to decide whether to exile himself--as do many of his colleagues and even his wife--or stay and be loyal to his country. To leave Germany would be to leave his homeland and language, where his artistic roots lie. When Hitler is elected (“I can’t believe they elected that clown”), civil liberties go down the drain, a culture of imposing self-styled superiority on neighboring countries--lots of things recognizable as, though of course not exactly parallel to, what is going on here today with our supposedly more benificent form of imperialism. It is possible here today in the USA to see a populace going along with, even vociferously supporting, an inimical force taking over the reigns of government, poisoned by a tainted electoral process allowing elements paying lip service but having little to do really with freedom and democracy, to seize unchecked control of the reigns of government. Opposing the present regime equals not supporting “our troops”, being unpatriotic, even committing treason. If it is okay to be opposed before a rush to war has been effected but not during the conflict; if being a wartime leader means increased approval ratings; and if being commander-in-chief means you can wage war at will despite good-willed attempts at restraint and appeals to reason, beating back discussion out of hand; then we are in trouble--and the more “success” these elements achieve, the deeper down the drain we are going. Hitler had his successes too.
---A kind of nationalistic messianic fervor taking hold of a commanding percentage of the population is a very troubling thing to have be going on around one. To equate military success with ethical superiority is totally wrongheaded.

---Email from Sweden:
“ Iraq. Don't get me started. Syria or Iran next? Or Norway, since they too got oil? Bush is not that appreciated in Europe right now (apart from England and Denmark...). And why haven't Iraq used all the weapons they had. Or didn't have? Well, I guess you and me are on the same side of the fence, anyway.”
---My modest-proposal reply:
“Thanks for the Norway idea. Dubya might want to consider it. We gotta prove we will kick Nordic butt just as quick as Islamic, so the Arabs will get over that persecution complex they so perversely harbor. Why be a superpower if you don't have super powers? Certainly if Iraq proves to be a pushover. With less than 100 U.S. casualties, how many or how few of these adventures would it take to equal the losses in one Vietnam experience? Maybe enough to conquer the world.”

---Thought for the day (with blog in mind):
“It is probably not a good idea to allow oneself to be too well truly known, since we are all shit at heart anyway. But I will continue to try to rise above the muck.”

---From email to Subterranean Press (regarding minor problems I seem to be having with my orders):
“I know what it is like to be over-busy, but I know customers keep wanting things to be handled correctly too.”
---Later: seems to have worked. Actually a response.

---Received word that Robert Christgau’s latest VILLAGE VOICE column has been posted.