"Do you remember what you asked for?"

And to be honest, I didn't remember until I opened the wrapping, and as such was a bit nervous.  If memory serves, I said that I'd rather receive a toy robot as a gift than an expensive pen - which is quite correct and still holds true.

Much thanks to the staff at the BCMEA, and specifically to Suki, our company's Employee Engagement Manager, for my 50th birthday gift, which I gather involved a substantial amount of effort to obtain.  And thank god I live alone, that noise is a LOT louder in person.

- Sid

P.S. And a final thank-you to David for his evocative comment:  "Hey look, laser tits!"

Thud and blunder.

Due to my recent European adventure, I didn’t go to see the recent movie reboot of Conan the Barbarian, but then, apparently neither did anyone else.  In fact, it seems to have come and gone in surprisingly short order for an epic big-budget heroic fantasy summer release.

So what went wrong?

Personally, I think that there’s some kind of fundamental barrier which can prevent an author’s work from being successfully adapted. The continued interest in Robert E. Howard’s barbarian hero would seem to indicate that there's some merit to the character, but as with Frank Herbert’s Dune and apparently everything by William Gibson, it may not be all that easy to transfer that obvious merit to another medium.

The barrier in all three of these examples is the same: style. Howard’s prose may be a bit extreme, but it paints a detailed tapestry, loaded with visual and sensory clues, placing Conan - and the reader - in a world which is rich, tactile, and real. 

Howard described the genesis of his Cimmerian warrior in similar terms:

It may sound fantastic to link the term "realism" with Conan; but as a matter of fact - his supernatural adventures aside - he is the most realistic character I ever evolved.  He is simply a combination of a number of men I have known, and I think that's why he seemed to step full-grown into my consciousness when I wrote the first yarn of the series.  Some mechanism in my sub-conscious took the dominant characteristics of various prize-fighters, gunmen, bootleggers, oil field bullies, gamblers and honest workmen I have come in contact with, and combining them all, produced the amalgamation I call Conan the Cimmerian.

For a true look at the character of Conan and the manner in which Howard describes him and his world, I strongly recommend reading a couple of the original stories featuring the character. Please note the word “original” – as I’ve already discussed, Conan has travelled quite a long way from home over the years since Robert E. Howard’s creation of the character.

Fortunately, much of Howard's work is now available as free downloads on Project Gutenberg.  Recommended reading would be the short stories Red Nails, Across the Black River, or A Witch Shall Be Born. If you're looking for a longer experience, try The Hour of the Dragon, a book-length work originally published as a five-part serial in the pulp magazine Weird Tales.

The bottom line is that any attempt at adaptation ends up being a second-hand description, someone trying to find a way to evoke through imitation the same degree of creative depth that they see in the original work. I suppose it's like a band doing cover songs: regardless of the quality of the performance, it's always going to be based upon - and compared to - someone else's unique genius.  Let's face it - imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but that doesn't make it the best form.

- Sid

Still a standard for tuba players?

When I received this battered postcard from ex-Printing House employee Paul Levesque, who has undertaken a bike trip across North America, I laughed out loud – the subsequent details on the back about playing G, A, F, (octave lower) F,  and C were unnecessary but a nice bit of icing on the cake.

However, the identification may not be as immediate for others. Does everyone remember that the Devil’s Tower, immortalized in mashed potatoes by Richard Dreyfuss, is where the climactic action of Close Encounters of the Third Kind took place?

The funny thing is that I’ve never seen the movie. As per my previous comments, I’m completely sceptical about every sort of cryptid phenomenon, and frankly CE3K had too much of that about it. Sadly, when you come right down to it, it's a geek version of the Rapture, with aliens substituting for angels. And, honestly - mashed potatoes?

- Sid