Noise Goes to Hungary
May 10th, 2012 by Darin
Now that it’s final, I can tell you that Hungarian Publisher Főnix Könyvműhely has bought the Hungarian rights to Noise . . . or, should I say, Zaj. As the publisher puts it:
Szintén egy disztópikus jövőben játszódik Darin Bradley Zaj című debütáló regénye.
A modern kori Legyek urának is nevezett könyv egy olyan világban játszódik, amelyben megtörtént a teljes átállás az analóg televíziózásról a digitálisra, ám a felszabadult frekvenciákat egy világuralomra törő szervezet teszi magáévá, hamarosan vérbe borítva a világot. Két fiatalember, két korábbi cserkész és szerepjátékos száll szembe az új világrenddel, és indul a titokzatos Amaranth megkeresésére. (Tervezett megjelenés: 2012. Ünnepi könyvhét)
Or, if you prefer:
Also in a dystopian future takes Darin Bradley Noise ‘s debut novel.
Modern Flies Lord also called the book a world takes place, which made the whole transition from analogue to digital television, but the released frequencies to a world-domination-breaking organization to embrace, and soon blood covered the world. Two young men, two former scouts and players stay in to face the new world order, starting with the mysterious Amaranth request. (Scheduled release: 2012th Festive Book Week)
I love that translation.
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- Posted in Noise
SF Signal Spotlight
May 10th, 2012 by Darin
The people at SF Signal have kindly given me a New Author Spotlight.
Thanks much, SF Signal folks.
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- Posted in Noise
Occupy’s Free University
May 1st, 2012 by Darin
Occupy Wall Street has set up a free university. I think this is pretty rad—in fact, a very-similar idea is central to the premise of the novel I wrote after Noise, which I wrapped up well before Occupy got going (at least, well before we all really started hearing about it). It’s a neat coincidence, even if it is a little freak-inducing.
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- Posted in society
Pirate Radio in Guatemala
April 24th, 2012 by Darin
For all those Noise fans who particularly loved the radio, broadcast, and narrow-band TV business, Boing Boing has a great link to indigenous Mayan communities using pirate radio.
[link]
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- Posted in Uncategorized
Review: Glendronach, 12-year
March 30th, 2012 by Darin
Fig. 1: The Glendronach 12-year
The first single-malt I ever tried was the Glendronach 15-year. On my 21st birthday, a good friend offered to take me to the liquor store to select a bottle, and I didn’t know the first thing about good whisky. So I grabbed the Glendronach based on aesthetics alone, and I’ve never been sorry. These days, it’s very difficult to find the 15-year anymore (which saddens me, as it is my most beloved malt)—indeed, I haven’t seen it in years. Just so, the 12-year is great in its own right.
The bottle, as you can see, comes smartly dressed in swathes of crimson, gold, and wheat—the lifted capital signature makes quite a label. The whisky itself, behind a Speyside malt’s traditionally clear glass, is russet bronze, highlighted, in places, by quick orange. It wears, in my opinion, the most quintessential of the Speyside rouges.
The Glendronach 12′s nose is smooth and only mildly phenolic. Sweet and dark, it smells predominantly of old, dry paper. Its secondary attributes suggest cinnamon and hints of dill.
Fig. 2: The Glendronach Distillery. Photo © Anne Burgess
The palate is robust: coffee, maple, roasted almonds. These make for quite the alchemical dance, yielding, ultimately, a tonic of aged heather and wet loam.
The finish is very bright and gone in a heated flash—spiced, effervescent, and suddenly cool.
The 12′s aftertaste, while being dark and toffeed, is surprisingly gentle. It offers a lingering, barley punch and the slightly medicinal, malted tang characteristic of most sweet whiskies. In the end, the Glendronach 12 contents itself with soft caramel in a modest denouement. The aftertaste is long but not steep.
On a scale of 1-5, I rate the Glendronach 12-year a 4. It’s no 15, after all.
From the packaging tin:
“We know Allardice was on to a good thing. And so did he! Indeed he called his malt (in his Aberdeenshire brogue) ‘The Guid Glendronach’ and the first people he convinced of this were the ladies of the night who haunted Edinburgh’s Canongate. Breaking into the market was proving difficult for Glendronach in 1826, so Allardice took matters into his own hands, shipped a barrel to Edinburgh and went out himself to canvass every outlet in the city he could find. But everyone was stocked up. The fate dealt a hand and Allardice was canny enough to play it for all its worth. Returning downhearted to his hotel he was accosted by two young women who asked him to buy them a dram. “Buy ye a dram?” he exclaimed, “I’ll gie ye a dram.” And so he did. And they liked it. And told their friends how ‘guid’ the Glendronach was. Soon everyone was demanding ‘The Guid Glendronach’. And we’ve never looked back since.”
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- Posted in recommendations, whisky
FCC Opens White Spaces
March 30th, 2012 by Darin
From the FCC:
“Washington, D.C. – Washington, D.C. – Today, the Federal Communications Commission issued a Public Notice announcing that the Office of Engineering and Technology (OET) has approved Spectrum Bridge Inc.’s television white spaces database system, which may provide service to devices beginning January 26, 2012. OET has also approved a device by Koos Technical Services, Inc. (KTS) as the first product allowed to operate on an unlicensed basis on unused frequencies in the TV bands. The KTS device will operate in conjunction with the Spectrum Bridge TV band database.”
Here comes Salvage.
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- Posted in Noise, society
35 Denton, 2012
March 12th, 2012 by Darin
I (barely) survived another year at 35 Denton. Highlights included The Raincoats, Grandlake (Jason Lytle from Granddaddy merged with Midlake), Atlas Sound, Words and Music, lunch trucks, and the back porch at Dan’s Silverleaf.
Here’re some pictures.
Fig. 2: Big, blurry video screen thing. It is its own 18-wheeler trailer. Neat. It's got Mountain Goats on it in this pic.
Fig. 3: Crowd shot.
Fig. 4: Another crowd shot.
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- Posted in music, photo blog, recommendations
Kara
March 8th, 2012 by Darin
Boing Boing has a writeup of Quantic Dream’s demonstration of the expressive power of the PS3′s graphics. Video linked below. The article explains it all.
Damn impressive.
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- Posted in recommendations
Book Recommendation: Happy, by Alex Lemon
February 22nd, 2012 by Darin
If you’re into sharp dialog, biting characterization, and lyrical heartbreak, you’re going to love this book. I haven’t finished it yet (about 100 pages in), but I’ll get out on the limb and plug it now. As I mentioned elsewhere, you can tell how good it will be by the bad reviews at Goodreads alone.
DeLillo, Diaz, Wallace, Eggers—it’s that kind of read.
Happy: A Memoir, by Alex Lemon
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- Posted in recommendations
Weekend Photos
February 20th, 2012 by Darin
Fig. 1: The Spooky Folk at Dan's Silverleaf as part of Lumberjack Fest 8.
Fig. 2: Pinebox Serenade playing at Dan's Silverleaf as part of Lumberjack Fest 8.
Fig. 3: Hares on the Mountain playing at Dan's Silverleaf as part of Lumberjack Fest 8.
Fig. 4: My kitchen table, become Utopia Planitia. A work-in-progress.
Fig. 5: A Timothy S. Miller encounter-in-the-wild. Tim and I have had the same agent for years, and we only live about forty miles apart. Nonetheless, we've never seen each other in person until this weekend, when he spotted me at a crosswalk in Denton. Strange.
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- Posted in photo blog
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