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Never been just all over Bukowski’s stuff — no real excuse, aside from lack of taste, I suppose — but this is about as good a poem-reading as I’ve heard/seen.

Too, like everybody’s been saying, yep, 3.75 million for a vampire trilogy. Or, like everybody’s been bemoaning? That too. Hopefully not because of ‘vampires,’ though, or ‘literary.’ I mean, this is the dream, right? So maybe the moaning is because of jealousy. Or because, as a friend mentioned, that’s a hundred other worthy books which now won’t be published. But to be that one, I don’t know. Don’t think I could turn it down on principle or anything. Too, what I’m excited about this deal for is that, I mean, we’ve got Max Brooks shuttling the zombie where it belongs, into non-fiction, we’ve got Charlie Huston taking the vampire into noirish territory, we’ve Joe Hill taking the haunted house novel on the road and Cormac McCarthy following that road into the postapocalypse, (I’ve yet to hit Raw Shark Texts, so can’t include it here) and then here soon Toby Barlow’ll be revamping (wrong word) the werewolf. It’s a wonderful time to be writing is what I’m saying. I mean, if you’re writing stories that aren’t boring.

And, talking not boring: a pretty excellent interview with King, which has to be from the same little Lisey’s Story swing through Europe, here (same place as the Bukowski, yeah). Anyway, in that interview he says something about his speech accepting that National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters thing, and, if you haven’t caught it yet — I checked mine out from the library about a year and a half ago, I think — it’s excellent. Too, anybody know if that King/Paris Review interview’s on-line anywhere? Been really wanting to see it, but the library it’s at is an impossible crutch-distance from any parking lot I have access to. And yeah, I should have caught it when it first popped, but that’s going to be a long list, things I should have done. What it won’t include, however, is picking up that Esquire with the King novella in it. Worth the four bucks.

And, on the good if intangible news front: X-Files 2. Hopefully a standalone, ie, one of the genre ones, please. No more alien conspiracy. Unless of course it’s a standalone alien one, like “Jose Chung’s Abducted,” which I still count as the best fifty-two minutes of television ever. And that’s counting that Three’s Company episode where Jack and Chrissy are trapped in the elevator, scared of suffocating, so Chrissy tells Jack if they each just breathe through one nostril, they’ll use half as much air.

And, though the science on it was pretty bad — I couldn’t tell until it got to the Black Elk part — still, History Channel’s 2012/End of Days thing’s got me thinking I need to stock up on ammo. I mean, I’ve known about the Mayan calendar since forever, but had no clue McKenna has twisted the I Ching until it wept ‘2012.’ To say nothing of Merlin. Though of course I wonder where Nostradomus weighs in on all of this.

And, some good words from a publicist, here. Got me thinking of this old piece, too.

On the horror research front, too, studies are finding that stabbing has an adverse effect on living, at least insofar as monkeys are concerned. And I’d guess they’re concerned. Too, from the Onion as well, looks like the net crashed. Bumdeal. Kind of like All the Boys Love Mandy Lane getting delayed (which I had no clue about until here), which is going to make my October/November a little less exciting. But then again, of course, I mean, that’s Halloween, the best time of the year. A hard time to be sad about anything. And we’ll still get Zombie’s Halloween, anyway, which should satisfy, and start some fights. Looks like Saw IV‘ll be slicing into theatres about then as well. Lot of momentum in that franchise.

And, last, this looks to be about as cool as it gets.

Over, out.