Coney Island Wonder Stories, a fiction anthology, is now available from Wildside Press:

Take a trip to Coney Island, dark and delightful. Eleven writers, including Kij Johnson, Maureen F. McHugh, Mike Resnick, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, and Lawrence Watt-Evans, imagine the fabled playland’s past, present and future. Travel with them to dreamland’s gateway on the ragged edge of North America, where Merlin haunts the deserted amusement rides, memory is more real than desire, and the dark Atlantic surges behind a bathroom mirror. Edited by Robert J. Howe and John Ordover.

My current playlist.

Redneck Woman by Gretchen Wilson
That’s the Way I’ve Always Heard It Should Be by Carly Simon
I Live on a Battlefield by Nick Lowe
Perfect Girl (Live) by Sarah McLachlan
Skating Away on the Thin Ice of a New Day by Jethro Tull
I Can’t Dance by Genesis
Here for the Party by Gretchen Wilson
I Wanna Dance With Somebody by Whitney Houston
Straight Up by Paula Abdul
Honey, I’m Home by Shania Twain
Cadillac Ranch by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
The Happiest Girl In the Whole U.S.A. by Donna Fargo
Walk On by/Say a Little Prayer/Do You Know the Way to San Jose by Dionne Warwick
Objection (Tango) by Shakira
Mr. Blue Sky by Electric Light Orchestra
Army Dreamers by Kate Bush
Green and Red of Mayo by The Saw Doctors
I’m A Man of Constant Sorrow by The Stanley Brothers
One Tin Soldier (The Legend of Billy Jack) by Coven
You’re Still The One by Shania Twain
Macarena by Los Del Rio
Pocahontas Proud by Gretchen Wilson
Kryptonite by 3 Doors Down
Rules by Shakira
Since U Been Gone by Kelly Clarkson
Princes of the Universe by Queen
One Night In Bangkok by Murray Head
All for You by Sister Hazel
As I Lay Me Down by Sophie B. Hawkins
The Reason by Hoobastank
Give a Little Bit by The Goo Goo Dolls
Here Without You by 3 Doors Down
Spaceman by 4 Non Blondes
Modern Love by David Bowie
Near You Always (Live) by Jewel
I`ve Just Seen a Face by The Beatles
Watching The Wheels by John Lennon
Lido Shuffle by Boz Scaggs
Joyce Country Ceili Band by The Saw Doctors
Bleecker Street by Simon & Garfunkel
Reason to Believe by Rod Stewart
And When I Die by Blood, Sweat & Tears
It’s the End of the World as We Know It by R.E.M.
Copperhead Road by Steve Earle
Crazy On You by Heart
Suerte by Shakira
The Prophet’s Song by Queen
Lovefool by The Cardigans
I Know What Boys Like by The Waitresses
Free Ride by The Edgar Winter Group

Many tracks courtesy of and .

I have the best friends. As you may know from ‘s blog, Bill and Laura just returned from France. Bill details the acquisition of the artwork below in this entry.

The landing page goes like this:

In the year 2014, The New York Times has gone offline.
The Fourth Estate’s fortunes have waned.
What happened to the news?
And what is EPIC?

What follows is a seemingly interminable, self-promoting flash movie by Robin Sloan (“formerly of the Poynter Institute”), about the ascendance of new media. The gist of the clip is that, in the future, we’ll all be news producers. (Warning: Watch the movie at your own risk—you’ll never get those eight minutes of your life back.)

What a load of portentous horseshit.

I wouldn’t want to read media “created by everyone” for the same reason I wouldn’t want to live in a house “built by everyone.” There are tasks that require a certain level of skill to be useful: writing, reporting, investigating and storytelling among them (not to mention bricklaying and electrical contracting). Even assuming bloggers have access to newsmakers and newsworthy events, they would still have to deploy a raft of skills that “old media” journalists take years to learn.

As it is I think blogs are SO over—nothing’s cheaper than the average Joe’s opinion. My bet is that the narcissistic twenty-somethings who think blogging is legitimate journalism will tire of content-free gasbaggery as they reach their thirties and forties. I don’t know what the mediascape will look like in 2014, but you can be sure that it will still sit atop a foundation of actual reporters from whom the contemporary Drudges and Wonkettes will lift their facts.

(And yes, “Ooooh! Irony! He’s trashing blogs in a blog!!!” Yeah, yeah, I got it.)