MARDI GRAS/CARNIVAL REPORT 2012

So, among other things, I found time to go online and catch the coverage of Mardi Gras and Carnival.

It looks like Mardi Gras has been helping the economy:

Mardi Gras Big Business Along Gulf Coast by associatedpress

And the tradition of king cake is alive and well:

And folks were wild as ever:

New Orleans Mardi Gras 2012 from Dave Hotstream on Vimeo.

As for Carnival down in Brazil, I found two YouTube channels that provide more Carnival coverage than I'm going to have time to watch: Carnaval Completo, and Desfile Completo.

In Rio, it was all about Brazil's African heritage, and even the horrors of slavery were made to look dazzling:

Beauty and the monstrous marched down the Sambadrome:

It mixed with usual feather-festooned PreColumbianoid fantasies into a vision that could have been Atlantis, Lemuria, or what the world is coming to in the 21^st century:

And now that it's Lent, I'll have to settle to amusing myself with videos of bullfights and riots until the crucifixion season begins.

CORTEZ ON JUPITER EBOOK LAUCHED

Look out, civilization-as-we-know-it, Cortez on Jupiter is finally available as an ebook!

Kindle users can get it from Amazon for a mere $.99.

Those of you with iPads, iBooks, Nooks, Sony Readers, Kobos, and most e-reading apps including Stanza, Aldiko, Adobe Digital editions, and others, can get it from Smashwords. Also for that smoking deal of $.99.

Psst! For just one month at Smashwords, the coupon code LH74B will allow you to get it for $.00, to get this ball rolling and encourage reviews, discussions, and general hysteria.

I'm also available for interviews, guest blogs, and other acts of shameless self-promotion.

Buy the way, the picture of the Great Red Spot on the cover behind my graffiti-lettering is a public domain image taken on July 8, 2008, and part of a HubbleSite news release from July 17, 2008. Thank you to NASA, ESA, and A. Simon-Miller of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center – your technical work is more mind-blowing than my artistic rampages.

CHICANONAUTICA RIDES THE TRAIL OF TEARS

Chicanonautica goes 21st century Cherokee this time over at La Bloga, with a review of Blake M. Hausman's fantastic novel Riding the Trail of Tears.

Here are some video extras:

First, let's have a Cherokee take on the subject:

Next, something from the fabled rock 'n' roll era:

Did you know that these days, people ride the Trail of Tears on motorcycles?

Finally, let's lighten up with a nice, uplifting song about the battle of Little Big Horn:

FINGER'S BREADTH AMPUTATION MADNESS

The things a writer has to do to get people to buy a book these days! According to a press release I just received, "In what is clearly an act of pure desperation," M. Christian has threatened to have part of one of his fingers amputated to publicized his novel Finger's Breadth. I guess I shouldn't be surprised with bookstores vanishing from the face of the earth, and with everybody who can type an email message putting out an ebook. I guess it's a wonder that it hasn't happened before.

Yeah, William Burroughs cut off part of one his pinkies, but that was a Van Gogh bid for love, not to hawk any books.

In a sane world (is that even possible?) this sort of thing shouldn't be necessary. Finger's Breadth is a sensational read "about a mysterious figure cutting off the tips of little fingers in a near-future noir San Francisco." It's packed with more thrills than you can shake a detached body part at. It should be selling like hotcakes. Filmmakers should be fighting duels over the rights to make a blockbuster movie of it.

So buy and read Finger's Breadth now, before we see missing fingertips all over the place.

I only hope that this doesn't mean that Christian has made some kind of deal with the yakuza.

THE FRANKENSTEIN PENIS: THE MOVIE(S), AND MORE

It seems that things are always happening with The Frankenstein Penis – my most infamous short story, for those of you aren't aware of the worldwide phenomenon. M. Christian, editor of the upcoming anthology, The Love that Never Dies: Undead Erotica, asked me for a digital file, and I sent it to him, so we are closer to seeing my bold assault on Puritan sensibilities (or was it a gross exercise in crass commercialism?) back in print.

Think the world can stand it?

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to me, Nick Lyon has posted Phal-O-Krat, his student film of The Frankenstein Penis on Vimeo for all the world to see:

You may want to compare it to the more recent Brazilian student film:

There just seems to be something about that story that inspires film students.

And I have wondered . . . are these two the only student films made of my notorious story? Could there be others out there? I do wonder – hell, I wanna know!

I'm not out to sue anybody. Beside satisfying my morbid curiosity, I'd like to have the facts down for the record, and to see what my work has inspired. And it would give me material to use in publicizing The Love that Never Dies. So don't be shy. If you know about a film (or video) of The Frankenstein Penis, let me know.

You can put a comment on this blog, or contact me through Facebook or Twitter.

I can see it now . . . “Step right up folks! See The Frankenstein Penis Film Festival!”

Think the world can stand it?