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So Many Links, So Little Time Literary Neil Gaiman If you haven't read Gaiman yet - shame on you. The gifted and prolific author of The Sandman, American Gods and Coraline has been on the cutting edge of modern fantasy for over a decade, writing books and stories that range from the mythic to the horrific to the humorous - frequently all at once. And aside from all that, his online journal is one of the best weblogs around. Gaiman fans can also get a fix of news, interviews and a treasure trove of other stuff over at The Dreaming. Thomas Ligotti Probably the finest writer of weird fiction of our time - Ligotti's stories are dreamlike, unsettling and truly strange, reflecting a nihilistic sense of cosmic horror that hasn't been this disturbing since Lovecraft. Ligotti's prose can be a challenge - his sentences are typically long, labyrinthine and baroque - but the rewards for anyone with a sense of dark aesthetic are great. The website has a handful of revealing interviews and, frequently, online samples of his fiction. Clive Barker Those who only know Barker's name by way of Hellraiser might be surprised at the breadth and depth of his work - from young-adult horror/fantasy to plays to great sprawling novels addressing the themes of spirit, identity, gender and Art. Aside from being one of our great queer fantasists, Barker's a talented visual artist, and there are fine examples of his work all over the official Lost Souls site. Also to be found there is a goldmine of interviews covering the last ten years or so, and news about his latest and forthcoming projects. Terry Pratchett Co-author with Neil Gaiman of the wickedly funny Good Omens, and author of over a score of Discworld novels, Pratchett has some very serious things to say under the guise of lighthearted satire; check him out even if you don't usually read fantasy, or series, or humor. And the L-Space Web is a great place to start for the fledgeling Pratchett fan. Music Jim's Big Ego Billing themselves as "unpop," JBE is smart, fun music for smart people. Frontman Jim Infantino has wit and personality in spades, and a gift with lyrics that are likely to make you both smile and think. Even better, these guys offer lots of their stuff for free on MP3. And Egomaniacs - as fans style themselves - are some of the nicest, coolest people you're likely to meet. Check 'em out. Porcupine Tree Some of the finest the UK has to offer in the way of Pink Floyd-esque trippy progressive rock. Not exactly uplifting - songs like "Feel So Low," "Russia On Ice" and "Stop Swimming" make these guys the Smiths of prog - but intelligent, edgy and extremely listenable. White Willow Gnostic-themed Canterbury prog from Norway, somewhere in sound between early King Crimson and middle-era Jethro Tull with a healthy dose of Renaissance gothic. Beautiful, enchanting and ethereal, not least because of the lovely and versatile vocals of Sylvia Erichsen. King Crimson The pioneers of art rock for upwards of three decades and still breaking new ground. The Elephant Talk site has articles, discographies, links and more bizarre invented chords than you can shake a Chapman stick at, and once in a ways one of the Crims themselves posts on the message boards. Go, and revel in the Frippage. Current 93 The brainchild of the eclectic David Tibet, Current 93 has been producing strange and disturbing music since the mid-Eighties, from the early loops-and-drones soundscapes to the "apocalyptic folk" that found its voice with the brilliant Thunder Perfect Mind. C93 is definitely an acquired taste, and not for the faint of heart, but Tibet and his talented collaborators have produced a body of work that is rich in depth, broad in scope, and rewarding for the dedicated listener. The official site has a page of links to Tibet's literary influences, which are as diverse as Buddhism, Gothic romance, Tiny Tim and schizophrenic Victorian cat-painter Louis Wain. The Changelings Ethereal, haunting goth-prog with Middle Eastern influences - the Changelings are one of those "what's-not-to-like" bands for those of a certain aesthetic bent. Not to mention that Regeana Morris' whirling dervish of a voice is a very fine thing indeed. The Changelings are also remarkable in that you can dance or read to them almost equally well (for a particular kind of dancing and a particular kind of book, anyway). A must-hear. Cocteau Twins One of the most unique sounds in the underground music of the Eighties. The Cocteaus are one of those groups you'll never mistake for any other, mostly for their singular use of singer Elizabeth Fraser's voice as an instrument; her "lyrics" are frequently a mix of nonsense, pure vocalization and half-hidden real words from a number of languages, requiring the listener to participate in the work to give it meaning. Not for everyone, but definitely one of the defining forces in haunting, strangely beautiful music. Middle Pillar Distribution One of the best online sources of gothic, ambient and dark-experimental music, and your one-stop place to pick up artists like Current 93, The Changelings, Coil, Nurse With Wound and Nature and Organisation at non-import prices. The Laser's Edge A great online distributor of progressive music of many varieties, and a very affordable place to get introduced to bands like White Willow, Porcupine Tree, Djam Karet, Solaris and the Flower Kings. Entertainment Farscape Simply the best space-opera on television, bar none - Farscape is one of those shows that blazes new territory and makes similar programs seem stilted and dumb. Weird, epic, smart, sexy, and gritty, and unafraid to do the completely unexpected, it's the most rewarding thing to come along on a Friday night since Happy Hour. Great stuff. Adult Swim Cartoon Network's showcase of animation for grownups ranges from the gleefully absurd to the jaw-dropping to the simply disturbing and back again. Saturday nights feature animé (notably including the must-see Cowboy Bebop, one of the best animated serials to have made its way across the ocean) but it's Sundays where you'll find the truly ridiculously weird stuff, like the adventures of a precocious eight-year-old and his video camera (Home Movies) and the escapades of a team of bargain-basement fast-food superheroes (Aqua Teen Hunger Force). The Brunching Shuttlecocks One of the smartest and wittiest of the comedy websites the Net has to offer, especially if you're a bit of a geek. Lore Sjöberg's Ratings pages alone are hours' worth of time-wasting hilarity, where grades are given to everything from Breakfast Cereals to Dante's Inferno Punishments to Dungeons & Dragons Character Classes. And don't miss the Björk Song. Timothy McSweeney's Sort of a Harper's for fans of the dryly absurd, McSweeney's is a goldmine of understated pseudo-intellectual humor. Especially of note are the Lists, which feature themes like Cancelled Regional Morning TV Shows ("Boston Morning With Stabby and Shouty") and Academic Euphemisms for Masturbating ("Normalizing the vector"). Gaming RPGnet A gamer's one-stop source for all kinds of news, commentary and assorted fun covering the spectrum of role-playing games from tabletop to computer to live-action. Especially valuable for the many featured columns, and product reviews written by, as it were, the Geek on the Street. GURPS Steve Jackson Games' Generic Universal RolePlaying System was one of the first RPGs to attempt to create one set of rules that could be used in any setting or genre, and it did a pretty good job of it. Not every gamer's a fan of generic systems, and this is definitely one for the detail-oriented, but the nice thing about the line is that you can use GURPS supplements like Steampunk or Monsters or Imperial Rome in your game even if you don't use the GURPS rules. And they licensed both Discworld and Hellboy, which is pretty freakin' cool. FUDGE For those who like a little DIY in their RPGs, FUDGE (the Freeform Universal Do-it-yourself Gaming Engine) provides not so much a system of rules as a way of building one. And the nice folks at Grey Ghost Press offer a free version for download, making FUDGE a pretty sweet deal for the design-minded gamer. Nobilis One of the very coolest things to come out of the RPG market in a great while. Prolific gaming essayist Kenneth Hite described it as "Neil Gaiman's Sandman and Clive Barker's Hellraiser on an absinthe bender. With flowers," and that's about spot-on - players take the role of godlike beings charged with attending to, and defending, aspects of reality. Nobilis is diceless, emphasizing cooperative storytelling, and has a lot of big ideas in it I wish I'd thought of - and on top of that, the second edition from Hogshead Press is simply one of the most beautifully produced books to come out of the gaming industry ever. And it's apparently the first major RPG to be written by a woman, an idea that was many years overdue. Risus A rules-lite "beer-and-pretzels" RPG from the mind of the uniquely talented S. John Ross, and also available absolutely free. Conceived as a comedy game (the name is Latin for "laughter") but really adaptable to almost anything, Risus lets you create a character in a handful of minutes using Clichés as the only attributes. Cool, wacky fun from one of the industry's more adventurous writers. Friends and Accomplices Tony's Rush Tabs Just as it says - a collection of Rush tabs painstakingly transcribed by my guitar-god brother. For those of you who have spent the past few years agonizing over what the hell Lifeson was up to in the middle of "The Trees" - the long wait is over. The Lobotomy Project Website of my multitalented friend and correspondent Spyder Ray (Rebekah Bennington among the Naturals). Lots of neato art, including a picture of my character Jenny Haniver I wish I'd drawn. Oh, and icepicks. Eve May Kill Website of my patient and long-suffering collaborator Eva-Maija Viertola, illustrator of the forthcoming project The Residents. Also full of cool artwork I wish I could do. The Wayshelter My cousin Lynx's well-nigh labyrinthine site, featuring all sorts of essays, musings and interesting things. I believe one or two of my poems are lurking around in the corridors as well.
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