Even more online fiction
Jay has posted the entirety of "Cletis and the Duct Tape Spider" on one page, in reading order, so you don't need to read backwards through the blog-entry format where the original was posted.
Meanwhile, Cory Doctorow's novel Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom has been released in hardcover from Tor, and in true alpha-geek fashion Cory has also released it in a variety of free electronic formats, including PDF and HTML. Free novel from a recent Campbell winner and soon-to-be-big-name author?what more could you ask?
Haul out those mirrorshades; the future's here, and it's pretty darn bright.
In unrelated news, saw the new movie version of Chicago this evening with Pam & Arthur. Enjoyed it. My only real complaint was that there were no particularly sympathetic characters, but it was nonetheless fun and entertaining and well-made, and the acting and singing and dancing are good, and Zeta-Jones, Zellweger, and Gere all turn out to be better actors than I expected. (They all did all their own singing and dancing, too, according to big statements in the credits.) Oh, and then there's Taye Diggs as the bandleader; yow. Not much of a part, but he does a fine job with it. I'd never seen the original musical, but Pam (who's a big fan) says it was remarkably true to stage versions she's seen, with only a few moments to wince at. And there was one sequence that apparently isn't in the stage version that was so well done the whole audience burst into spontaneous applause; that's pretty rare in my experience, except at opening-weekend showings of geek-favorite movies.
Okay, back to moving things around my apartment. (Just found out this evening that the apartment owners are coming by to inspect apartments over the next couple days, and mine is really not in any shape to be inspected.)