A Regular Ripper!

Long time no blog. Proper blogging I mean

Been married and living in Oz 3+ years now. In some ways time flies. On the other side of the coin, I feel so accustomed to life Down Unda that I might’ve been here for 20 years. While I still think Oz is ahead of the U.S. in quality of life, I notice that—in the big cities like Sydney and Melbourne—Oz is beginning to catch up with the U.S. in terms of the great corporate wank-off scheme. Higher rent (less rental properties too!) and interest rates (for those of you who like me and my wife own a 30 year mortgage), higher public transport costs, shitty outsourced customer service – you name it. Give it time, I say… All that considered, we’re still managing to squeak by with one car between us. In the very least I take heart in the fact that I actually manage to read several hours each week on the train trip to/from home. I could bitch more, but I won’t. I generally enjoy my days in Oz with my wife, Tanya, and my silly little twerp of a cat, Lily.

A month ago I made an announcement regarding the supposedly confirmed appearance of “Greg Lindstrom & Friends” at Headbanger’s Open Air 2010 in Germany on the various official Falcon sites. You can read that post here: http://www.falconband.net/falconnews.htm. Or, if you’re too lazy to follow the link, I’ll copy the text below:

21 Jan 2010:

It has come to our attention that the Headbanger’s Open Air Festival has been advertising a confirmed appearance by “Greg Lindstrom and Friends” on their 2010 bill and Falcon on the HOA Warm-Up gig. This is not true. While the HOA fest did contact us and discuss the possibility of Falcon (Greg Lindstrom, Perry Grayson and Darin McCloskey) playing a set of Cirith Ungol classics at the fest itself and a full Falcon set at the Warm-Up gig, no contracts were ever signed and no flights were booked. No offense to the HOA organizers, but these arrangements were never confirmed. HOA tickets were, however, sold under the pretense that “Greg Lindstrom and Friends” would be performing. In the music business agreements are made in writing via contracts. Until the paper is signed by both parties nothing is confirmed. I am always on top of posting news on our various sites and making press releases. If any gig or event is ever confirmed the news gets posted quickly. You’ll all notice that there was never an announcement made by me or any of the other Falcon members regarding HOA 2010. That is because there was no confirmation. It is best not to count your chickens before they hatch. Read: “don’t get ahead of yourselves.” We regret that Cirith Ungol and Falcon fans were in any way misled, but that is out of our control. No, we’re not playing HOA 2010. Thanks for understanding!

Best Heavy Rawkin’ Wishes for 2010 and Beyond,

Perry (on behalf of Greg Lindstrom and Darin McCloskey)

————-
Okay, end of music mumblings.

Not much happenin’ in the way of writing. Still waiting for Hippocampus Press to publish The Tindalos Cycle, an anthology edited by old Lovecraftian friend Bob Price and containing my old short yarn “The Death of Halpin Chalmers.” Here’s a link to the book on the Hippocampus Press site: http://www.hippocampuspress.com/other/tindalos-cycle.html. If/when the book surfaces, I’ll be stoked to be in the company of Frank Belknap Long, Robert Bloch, Ramsey Campbell, Robert W. Chambers and Ambrose Bierce.

Received a very heart-warming and cool email from Chuck Schuldiner’s sister Beth last month about the massive memorial article I wrote  for Metal Maniacs in 2001, followed by a note from Eric Greif, Chuck’s former manager and attorney. Eric raised the possibility of my penning liner notes to some future Death and Control Denied discs. I’m definitely (to use a word Chuck was fond of) keen. I know better than to hold my breath on liner notes. The music biz is cutthroat, and when things depend on record labels you never can tell. Remember when Lee Dorrian contacted me about liners to some supposed Rise Above Records Bang vinyl reissues? Too good to be true, and “no go” all because of Capitol, Bang’s original label, not licensing rights. Gee, Capitol certainly has done a lot with the Bang recordings since 1974, eh?!

Been reading plenty lately. Fiction-wise The Screaming Mimi and Night of the Jabberwock by Fredric Brown. The Screaming Mimi deals with Ripper-style murders in Chicago in the late 1940s. When I was much younger I was fascinated by the Jack the Ripper case. I borrowed more than a few library books. I read my share of fictionalized follow-ups to the Ripper phenomenon, like Bob Bloch’s brilliant basher “Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper.” Just finished Stephen Knight’s Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution in two days. It’s different when you own a book. You don’t feel as rushed. I devour things quicker when I know I don’t have to return it sometimes!? Sue me! Now midway through The Diary of Jack the Ripper by Shirley Harrison. I have to admit that I’m both a fan and a detractor of “true crime.” It turns me off when authors present their theories—some way out on a limb—as established fact. It gets even more annoying when said “true crime authors” don’t cite source for these fallacious factoids. It happens all over, from Hollyweird to Whitechapel to Milwaukee and everywhere in between. While newspapers often print erroneous info and opt for tabloid-style tawdriness, it puts a smile on my face when I see a writer covering their ass with newsprint! All shooting victims may be “gunned down in a hail of bullets” or “hacked to bits with a sharp butcher knife” in the papers, but at least it gives a crafty true crime gumshoe a leg to stand on. Next up: Torso by Steven Nickel and In the Wake of the Butcher by James Jessen Badal. I’ve prowled through nearly every digital paper archive for articles on the Cleveland Torso Murders (also referred to as The Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run or the Cleveland Butcher). When I glommed that the killer sent a letter saying he’d moved to “sunny L.A.” for the winter in 1938, I knew I’d become ghoulish for whatever further details I could exhume. I suppose you could say that over the past few years I’ve become a bit more active than your average armchair detective in regard to the Black Dahlia case and other wild and wacky crimes of the L.A. noir era (1930s to 1950s). Meeting folks in the flesh means you lose the anonymity you have behind that monitor or sheets of paper.

I’ll leave you with a righteous Aussieism: “This blog’s a regular Rippa!”

post-fot…

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