social media update

Hi!

I'm shaking things up.

Join me at...

...Instagram for a self-free, inedible photo gallery of this and that from here and there.

...Twitter for art-related news, events, articles from top-notch publications, featured artists, and more

And finally...

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Comments and questions are always appreciated.

Thanks for reading!

: f :

happy new year!

Happy New Year, dear readers. I apologize for the relative silence over the holiday period, but I do tend to update only when I have something worth updating about. However, just to shows signs of life I thought I'd mention a few things in the works, notably reviews of Up In The Air and The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus as well as others. Starting next week, things around here should be getting back to normal.

I wish you the best for 2010 and, as always, thank you for reading!

: f :

updates: TFPO, Morbid Outlook, the ladder

Apologies for the lack of timely updates. Here's a quick rundown of what's going on:

My second of an anticipated three columns on climate change posted at TFPO on Monday. I diverged slightly from my intended topic to answer editor Ari Noonan's editorial - Why Won’t the Global Warmies Engage in a Manly Debate? - with a question of my own Why Won’t Climate Change Deniers Accept the Science?

A new edition of In Rotation at Morbid Outlook with reviews of The Genitorturers, Ascension of the Watchers, Echo & the Bunnymen, Synthetic Dream Foundation, and Anders Manga.

Finally, The Ladder...What's so special about the patient code-named Red Queen? What is Dr. Harriman Seldon Poole's interest in her? How will Eriq and Vlad come up with a superhero that is more Superman than Superman? And what was Dr. Lumen working on before he disappeared? The answers to these and other question will continued to be unveiled in January.

As always, thanks for reading.

updates! a new feature!

Greetings: please take note that the RSS feed has been changed from "the recreational nihilist" to "ink and ashes." If you've been subscribing to the blog with whatever blog roll gizmo you've been using, I'm afraid you'll have to resubsribe.

Some good news to make your lives a bit simpler: I've added an eMail subscription feature so you can get posts fresh off the press and into your inbox.

Finally, I just thought I'd mention my other blog, The Fashionoclast, because...well, just because I think there's something there for everyone.

attention all subscribers! mark your calendars for november 16th!

If you're subscribing to TRN via RSS or some such thing, please note that I will be renaming the subscription stream from "the recreational nihilist" to "ink and ashes" on Monday, November 16th. This will allow me to properly set up an e-mail subscription. Unfortunately, the changeover means it will be necessary for you to resubscribe so you can continue receiving the feed through the RSS/blogroll system of your choice...the upside is that you can choose to receive posts in your inbox.

As always, thanks for reading.

general update and new TFPO column

My apologies for the inconsistent updates, but life has been on the wee bit erratic side. The Ladder will continue with a new installment next week, and since this week's column didn't post on time I was delayed in linking to it here. Without any further delay, I give you...

Not Another Obama Column

Tomorrow: a review of Where the Wild Things Are.

no post for "The Ladder" this week

I apologize for the lack of an episode of The Ladder this week but truth be told I kinda forgot. In between things I'm trying to wrap up Chapter 6 of a novel, which is rather critical as it marks the end of the first of three parts. I'll post another entry in the Secret Hospital plotline next week. Promise. I hope.

the new ink and ashes is go!

It’s sad, of course. Ink and Ashes Films Reviews has served me well over the years. And the Art of Ceremony never really got the push it deserved. However, there comes a time when choices have to be made to serve a greater purpose. Thus, artofceremony.com dies in its sleep, and inkandashes.net as a film review website distinct and separate from The Front Page Online comes to an end. By trimming away the excess, I aim to avoid unproductive detours and duplication of efforts. My efforts now turn towards an upcoming TFPO re-design and re-launch, an exciting process that includes the sparkly new fashion blog The Fashionoclast.

So it’s not all gloom. When I first conjured the expression “ink and ashes” nine years ago, I intended it to serve as an umbrella for my writing endeavours, both non-fiction and fiction. Now it can, as I confine “The Recreational Nihilist” to my TFPO column and re-brand this blog as part of an effort to streamline and focus my work. The change is largely one of branding; my contributions to TFPO, Morbid Outlook, and now The Fashionoclast will continue – full steam ahead! As before, I will use this blog as a means of keeping readers up-to-date with my writing endeavours, as well as personal forum for a variety of topics that I hope will be fun and interesting for readers.

Welcome to the new inkandashes.net! Let me know what you think – comments directly below.

construction!

You'll notice a few changes going on around here. I'm just getting started, so please bear with me as I move the furniture, paint the walls, and grapple with the fixtures.

quick update

I was on vacation for the past week and a bit. I'll be getting back up to speed within the next few days. Judging from friends' reactions to the RNC convention - outright shock and unmitigated fury - I can safely say I'm glad I had a news blackout. As news of McCain's VP choice slowly seeps into my info-sphere, the old gloom is setting back in too. I mean, c'mon, a right-wing extremist? Most laughable: Republicans went after Obama for being an inexperienced unknown, even though the "inexperienced" part stems from a willful distortion of Obama's record. (See here.) And what do they do? They trot out an unimpressively experienced unknown, a predictably regressive candidate who appeals to the very people who gave the US, and the world, George W. Bush. Ugh.

I miss that news blackout.

update: works in progress, facebook

Well, I've done it. I'm using Facebook now. MySpace just wasn't cutting it - clunky, slow, kind of like an old beater of a car that'll chug from point A to point B all the while sounding like it's going to die from some horrible respiratory disease in the process. Facebook actually seems like a lot of fun, and I'll be testing out its networking capabilities next Monday once I officially launch the Always Choose Love Initiative, which I alluded to a while back. More than that, though, I'm hoping I'll be able to stay in better touch with a variety of folks, even if it just an occasional chirp.

In other news, work on my novel, called Rebel in Waiting, is gradually drawing to an end. I'm getting into a fourth and last round of edits, after which I will try to find a literary agent. It's actually been quite grueling in addition to exhilarating. While I knew going in that it wouldn't be a novel for everyone, I'm hoping it will at least be a novel for someone - other than me. At the least, working to refine it has been a useful lesson in patience and taking the time to explore, in critical detail, what works and what doesn't. Even if the book isn't "for everyone," I can at least say that after four rounds of edit, the end result is vastly superior than that first draft, which can only fuel my excitement and bolster my confidence.

For all the talk about a niche book, though, I can safely say that my second novel - I'm well into Chapter 3 - will be accessible in the conventional sense of the word. I don't want to say too much yet, but it's fantasy of sorts along the lines of G. Garfield Crimmins The Republic of Dreams: A Reverie. It's about a forensic poet investigating art crimes in the County of Imagination, a land of artists. The language (conlang) I invented is actually getting put to use, and I've got all sorts of other goodies planned to give the book a Tolkien-like reality, albeit with a plot that doesn't involve war.

And just as exciting as seeing an end to the editing process for Rebel in Waiting is finally being within reach of a working draft for my poetry book, which I intend to enter in contests after an exhaustive editing process.

With so many pots in the fire, I'm really eager for the feast...

new review - Pool Party

My review of Pool Party, an indie film distributed by Echelon Films and due to be released on DVD on April 29th, has been posted:

The Front Page Online

or

www.inkandashes.net