If everything made sense,
we wouldn't need surrealism to explain it.
-- me
Novels and Stories of mine that are around on the net, and places to get them...
First, try my own imprint, Smashed-Rat-on-Press.
- Fumie's Teacup, is in-print. This is the one novel that I recommend if you don't already know me. It's about Japan. Available through Amazon.com. But at $18, I think XLibris is pricing themselves out of the market. I have now posted a less expensive second edition HERE at Lulu.com, with the cover I always wanted.
- Diane at Fifteen also in-print and available from XLibris... This novel contains mature content not at all suitable for youngsters... I don't necessarily recommend this for general readership, in any case. This is a book that would be banned in a minute if they heard about it... but I think it's a lot more wholesome than Catcher in the Rye. When you read it, you'll agree. It's also available through Amazon.com, but a cheaper edition is available HERE at Lulu.com...
- Apple Blossom Dreams is available through Book Surge and on BN, and Amazon.com. So, you can go hog wild and order as many as you need. (So far, I think nobody's bought it except me; maybe Glenn. Amusing, eh?) This is the first time I designed my own cover. The front is a picture of blossoms on the apple tree in front of my house, complete with honey bee. This isn't a book for kiddies or blushing brides. (On Amazon.com, you can see the cover and the first few pages, actually, in a fair-sized reproduction.) At some point, I'll also put this out through Smashed-Rat-on-Press.
- My earliest collection of short stories, Majestic Freiks, has never before been available, but is now exclusively available at Lulu.com through Smashed-Rat-on-Press.
- My racy first novel A Harlot of Venus was published by the defunct firm of Masquerade Books (New York). Try searching for a used copy at ABE Books. It has also started showing up used on Amazon.com for as much as $50, and those aren't even autographed! I've also seen it available for one cent. Ah, well. If you've already read the book, look for the rest of the trilogy, coming someday. Meanwhile, if you want to buy a copy of A Harlot of Venus, I have put up a new second-edition at Lulu.com. This new limited edition contains author's corrections and the maps that were missing from the Masquerade edition. It also has a really funky new cover (temporary, while I'm waiting for an artist to paint a nice one).
- You might also be interested in my short book Exploring the Surrealist Haiku of Batsuo Masho, which is now also available at Smashed-Rat-on-Press.
- Georgia's Loose Tooth is available in the Intertext archives (link to archives V4N4). At the time (1994) I rather hated what the editor did to it, so someday I'll be vain enough to publish what I actually wrote.
- Violists (three stories from 1994 donated to Project Gutenberg, free downloads!) This is a set of stories suitable for a general audience. It's also available from the Gutenberg server as a zip file, if you want it that way... Check out the Oxford Text Archive info on Violists. This is soon to be available as part of my fiction collection at Lulu.com.
- Bonus story of the decade... A Blossom in the Sand - another one originally published by Spectrum in Candlelight Tales now long out of print. This was at one time put on-line by Spectrum as a sample, so it's been around the net before, and can probably be found in some archives somewhere. But here it is. The collection from which this story derives will also be available soon. Look for it at Smashed-Rat-on-Press.
- If you're one of the multitudes following this page with breathless excitement, you'll be really keen to learn that not only is A Harlot of Venus back in print (as above), but soon to be available re the never-before-available prequel, and the long awaited secret anti-war companion novel of Mars. Stay tuned! I can hardly wait for them all to be banned in Peoria.
- You may also be interested to know that our friend H. Cogito Epsilon finally put out the racy sci-fi erotic satire Ergot Suum and the Rampaging Ooze-Worm of Zupiter over at Smashed-Rat-on-Press.
My miscellaneous pages...
Before you send me mail asking the same old questions, please read the FAQ!
View my vanity Gallery of Miscellaneous Pictures (of myself).
Are you a long-lost classmate? Here's the list of some People I Always Wondered What Happened To.
Robot Love Poetry. Read and hear some poems by my friend TB788-E10-D...
Tired of the same old music? Why not try Uncle Rick's Olde Thyme Nature Recording Kit It's absolutely free and carries no obligation (except that since it is music you can't get out of your head, once you listen to it, we will require exclusive rights to occupy, in perpetuity, a microscopic portion of your brain and the unrestricted use of certain brain cells).
Here are some of my opinions and rants about film making...
Take a quick visit to Uncle Rick's Under-appreciated Celebrity Hall of Fame!
See and read about my trip to Washington DC (a photo essay!)
When was the last time YOU read a book? Check out my essential reading list for young people.
Oh! Quick! Take the ˇ Q U I Z ! It's easy!
"Did you know there are over a hundred thousand Chinese characters?" To see how these rumors get started, click HERE! (Sorry, this page takes a while to load, but is worth its wait in wisdom.)
How about watching Unicode, The Movie, an April 1, 2000 collaboration with Kareem Danish. And here is the Press Release about the movie.
And how about those wacky aliens, demanding their codepoints, eh?
If you're looking for HTML file differs, take a gander at Uncle Rick's Guide to Visual HTML Diff Products.
If you're looking for a VST host program that's cheap or free, take a gander at Uncle Rick's Guide to Cheap & Free VST Hosts. A bit out of date, perhaps.
If you're looking for my tutorial page on how to use FTS with GPO, here it is: Microtuning the Orchestra.
Sometimes we don't get answers to our questions. Here are some of my favorite un-answered questions.
If you get this far, go look at a few pictures to clear your head.
And finally... a list of Rick's Film Picks. Eschew the mainstream...
Links to some places of interest...
Ciné 16 - In years gone by, when I wanted to get out of the house and really view a film, as opposed to lounging at home while Fred & Ginger twirled across the tiny screen, Ciné 16 was my venue of choice. In former years, you could often catch me there on a Thursday evening. They have stopped their free basement shows, but while they lasted, they were wonderful. Oh, here is one of my favorite art quotes:
The art world has long been cluttered with artbabble spoken among people having advanced art degrees who, unable to communicate ideas to the intelligent public simply, clearly, and evocatively, write to each other instead through museum catalogues and wall placards.
-- Geoff AlexanderProject Gutenberg Books on-line, free free free! Look for Elizabeth and Her German Garden! Amusingly, every on-line edition I can find of this book seems to derive from the one that my mother and I scanned and edited for Project Gutenberg in 1998. Isn't it interesting how free stuff flows through the web? One tell-tale that it's "my" text is the phrase: [[musical notes occur here in the printed text]] followed a bit later by [[musical notes]]. In the printed text, musical notes occur twice on the first page, and I indicated that in the Gutenberg text. If you're lucky enough to get here but aren't lucky enough to own a printed copy of this book, you can now see the fabled musical notes. (Drumroll please.) The passage in question reads:
Two owls are perched near me, and are carrying on a long conversation that I enjoy as much as any warbling of nightingales. The gentleman owl says
, and she answers from her tree a little way off,
, beautifully assenting to and completing her lord's remark, as becomes a properly constructed German she-owl.
Most web sites where you'll find the text of this book, though they derive from the Gutenberg text, omit the introduction I wrote to the on-line edition for Project Gutenberg. Some sites, like this one at World Wide School dot Org, retain the introduction. Bravo, and I thank them. (Some other sites do rather nasty and weird things to the text, or even fill it full of advertisements, so I certainly won't link to them. Where do they get off? I mean, it's not as if they paid for the text, or as if dear Elizabeth is getting any royalties...)
Donald Pippin's Pocket Opera You will find me there frequently.
Wendy Carlos: Beauty in the Beast Alternative tunings galore.
Lasya Dance Company (Bharata Natyam in the Bay Area)
Abhinaya Dance Company (Bharata Natyam in the Bay Area)
Yma Sumac One of the great voices of all time, and Moises Vivanco, too. Yma unfortunately passed away in November, 2008.
The Surrealism Server Just when you thought the giraffe was extinguished a Volkswagen intervened to tender sensibility's urgent framboise.
City Lights Theater of San Jose My favorite live theater around San Jose. Sometimes you can hear my music there.
Vera-Ellen Two of the great legs of all time.
Detritus.net Recycled culture.
Learn something about Hedy Lamarr...
Check out the Roman Mysteries of Caroline Lawrence... This is one of my new favorite series, and I can hardly wait for the next volumes to come out.
Visit the Salvador Dali Museum in St Petersburg, Florida. I went there over the 2003 December holidays and loved it. You will too.
If you like beers & ales, try Alba. It's unique and rather hard to find in the USA.
Music you need to hear...
Prent Rogers fine young microtonal composer.
Zia - If you thought microtonal music was only for hobos and mathematicians, check out Elaine Walker and her band.
The Rutles - Oooh, if you like the Beatles, you'll love the Rutles...
And now, you need to run right out and look at my list of beautiful songs.
Last Update November 15, 2008