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Laurel Krahn's weblog since August 1998.

It doesn't happen very often, but sometimes I wish I lived in L.A. Or could afford to visit there for a week or two. Like now, for this year's William S. Paley Television Festival. Cool lineup. These kinds of things seem to mostly only happen in L.A. and New York City and I'm stuck here in Minnesota. Hmph. Always cool stuff at the Museum of Television and Radio. Well, if you like that sort of thing.

Got a glimpse of some Twins highlights last night on the 10 o'clock news. Spring training! Yes! Guzman hit a triple! Yay! Spring is finally hear (or darn close) and the Twins are playing ball.

It's enough to make a depressed unemployed chick like me a little bit giddy.

(Pity I can't be in Florida right about now . . . ).

You can order Bob Mould's new album straight from him and you'll probably receive it at least a little bit before the official release date of March 12th (they've started shipping 'em today). Or purchase it elsewhere and get it on or after March 12th. Assuming you want the new Bob Mould album (but why wouldn't you?).

There's a big sale this week at sheeba.ca, Jane Siberry's official website. 35% off of everything. Including a limited supply (only 20 are available) of the "sheebang" package, which includes CDs of all of Siberry's works (plus some other nifty stuff). It's a great deal and it's great music.

The fine movie Say Anything is coming out on DVD. With extras! Like commentary by John Cusack, Ione Skye, and Cameron Crowe. 10 deleted scenes! A featurette, some alternate extended versions of scenes . . . I love it when movies I like come out on DVD with a lot of extras. For a good price.

Speaking of which, I also really need the new DVD of Tombstone. It's all Steve's fault.

And did you hear that Strictly Ballroom is finally coming out on DVD? I love that movie. (Baz Luhrman fans will also be interested in the new special edition DVD of Romeo and Juliet). And of course you have Moulin Rouge already, don't you? Best film of 2001, by far, IMHO.

TV fans take note, the first season of The Larry Sanders Show is coming out on DVD. As is the first season of OZ and the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. 'Course I'm behind, I still need to get the first season of Buffy and the fourth season of the X-Files. And I need that fifth season of The X-Files when it comes out, too. Now if only someone would release entire seasons of Homicide: Life on the Street on DVD. A girl can dream, can't she?

So I used to be way into customizing everything on my PC and then one day I woke up and decided that maybe my system would run better if I didn't have big wallpapers and a slew of custom icons and stuff. I know, very boring.

But a couple weeks ago I installed this Zorak theme and much to my amazement, I'm not tired of it yet. (Usually the soundfiles, if nothing else, get really old really quicklike). I (heart) Zorak.

Crap.

Actor Kevin Smith dies, after a fall in China. He's probably best known for playing Ares on Xena and Hercules. I always thought he was great in that role and I really enjoyed that character. He leaves behind a wife and three kids. Sigh.

Excellent piece about Dave Van Ronk. I'll link to more stuff later (email me any stories I may miss).

TVTattle.com is back.

This isn't for real, is it? (Can't be, right?) Patrick Stewart, Brent Spiner, Jonathan Frakes, and Michael Dorn to represent the United Federation of Planets in the bobsled competition at the Olympics. Heh! I wanna see that "statement from Paramount Pictures" (anyone find it online yet?).

Oh, hell. Such terrible news to greet me this morning.

Dave Van Ronk is dead. Complications to do with cancer, I presume. I'll post links to more obits as I find them (feel free to email me URLs if you find 'em before I do).

The news and a brief obit are online at Folklore Productions.

Christine Lavin has done a great job of getting the word out about Dave's battle with cancer. News of his death hasn't been posted yet on her website, but there's all sorts of good stuff there. Fans (or those who simply want to know more about Van Ronk) may also want to visit the fansite Dave Van Ronk Unauthorized.

Most of my Van Ronk albums are on vinyl and I don't have them easily accessible now, or I'd be listening to them right now. I've got "Another Time and Place" stuck in my head. One of my favorite songs, ever. It's hard to believe Dave Van Ronk is gone. I don't know what else to say. What do you say when one of your favorite performers and songwriters dies?

Ha ha ha ha.

Y'all remember Oolong the bunny, right? He's the best. Well, word is he's having some health problems. If I read things right, he got bit by another bunny, but also has other problems possibly relating to or similar to some absesses he had to have surgically removed last year. Poor bunny.

So send those warm wishes and prayers out for the cute bunny who likes having stuff put on his head.

Here's Oolong's original page.

And here's a livejournal community devoted to Oolong (be warned that it's image intensive and that it includes some closeups of Oolong's wounds/injuries in addition to the many of the usual Cute Bunny Pictures).

MightyBigTV.com (MBTV) is now TelevisionWithoutPity.com (TWoP). No, I don't know why. I do like the new logo creature. It seems unlikely I need to plug this site as they have no shortage of visitors, really.

I'll note that it's rather sad that last week's episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer was so lame that I'm really looking forward to the recap because it's gotta be better than the episode.

Oh! I forgot to mention and link to Mitch Wagner's weblog (24-hour drive-thru), too.

I emailed this to a few people when it first hit the web, but I might as well link to it here, too. It's a lengthy article about the whole Ed Kramer mess. If you don't know who Ed Kramer is, maybe it'd help if I mentioned he started DragonCon.

Someone recently posted to my livejournal recommending DragonCon and I didn't even know where to begin a response. You'll never find me at this con for a lot of reasons (and no, they don't even have to do with Ed Kramer). It's a circus, it's a show, it's a whole different kind of convention than the kind I like. If it's fun for you, that's great for you; it's just not my kind of thing. I've written about my kind of con before, I should post something again sometime soon.

Minicon 37 is not that far off, as Easter weekend is at the end of March this year. The next (and final) deadline for preregistrations for Minicon is February 14th. So if you're planning on going to Minicon and haven't registered yet, best to get those forms and checks in the mail soon. Also a good idea to reserve a hotel room if you're planning on staying at the hotel during the convention.

Minicon is a much smaller convention than it used to be, but it's still a whole heckuvalot of fun. Expect (I hope) good programming, a cool consuite, some fun parties, interesting people, and fine fine music.

The guests of honor this year are Emma Bull, Will Shetterly, Arthur Hlavaty, and Rick Berry. Fine folks all. Show up just to see them, if for no other reason. But there are plenty of other reasons. More info on the website, of course.

If you've got questions about the convention, you can email me and I'll do my best to answer your questions or point you in the right direction.

Don't look now, but Gary Farber has a weblog. And so does Avedon Carol! Excellent! [found Gary's weblog via Patrick's weblog and Avedon's weblog via Gary's weblog. Tra-la-la. I suppose if I read rasff I'd've known about these sooner. Or if I were reading more weblogs more often.]

So are there more weblogs by science fiction fans that I don't know about? (Which aren't yet linked at ye olde portal page?) I'm working on revamping the portal, so if you spy any broken links or want to suggest some additions, get in touch with me.