weateallthepies.com

I can’t say I’m a huge David Byrne fan although I have listened to Eno’s stuff occasionally but it is interesting to see more big names getting behind the idea that ‘free’ or at least ’sort of free’ can be a good thing.

OK you can’t download the album for free but they are providing it in it’s entirety as a stream with a nice embeddable player as you can see below. Obviously this gains them lots of free(ish) marketing but it also allow customers to listen before they commit to buying in a format that might be more useful to them.

I’ve always thought streaming music will be the way forward as bandwidth becomes cheaper and broadband coverage ubiquitous and we are just starting to see the beginnings of this with ad funded services such as SpiralFrog and We7. Illegal downloading will never go away no matter how much money the labels throw at combating it but if you make something easy to access, legally for zero (or little/ad driven) cost then people will use it and possibly even buy stuff if that is made easy, non-crippled and reasonably priced too.

Heres hoping eh.

*Chuckle*

There are quite a few online ‘zines covering speculative, scifi and fantasy short fiction but this week I am reading and thoroughly enjoying Darwin’s Evolution. I’m only a few stories into the first issue but so far my attention has been held and more importantly I’ve found them entertaining.

There can be a tendency in short fiction magazines to publish stories which whilst demonstrating the craft, lose the entertainment to the ‘challenge’. Of course those stories have their place but with limited time for reading, sometimes I just want something that keeps me turning the pages and Darwin’s Evolution so far has managed that.

Good stuff then, I’ll keep reading and I will no doubt donate when I am feeling a little healthier in the pocket.

Darwin’s Evolutions is a web-based periodical that presents speculative fiction (science fiction and fantasy) genre stories in a monthly “magazine” format along with available print on demand and abridged podcast versions.

Within the boundaries of our ‘zine and our archives, expect to find engrossing stories, expressive art, and the best serial-comics we can convince to join our efforts.

This webzine is funded by the kindly donations of our readers along with select business sponsorships. We will avoid tacking on onerous web-style advertisements so long as our readership and affiliated sponsors can support us.

In every issue expect stories that give you characters to care about in challenging situations whose struggles to overcome their adversity will keep you clicking or turning the next page to find out what happens next.

Gotta love Pat Condell.

Transmissions From Beyond is a short fiction based podcast from TTA press, the people who produce in my opinion the best short fiction magazines available (Interzone, Black Static, Crimewave). Three episodes are already available, each containing one story read from each of the publications mentioned above.

I really can’t stress enough how good these magazines are, especially when you consider that the market for short fiction is far from huge and healthy. TTA Press not only produce magazines full of great new fiction and interesting editorial, they also manage to make the magazines look, feel and probably smell great, which can come as a shock if you are used to reading the pulps.

The podcast seems similarly well produced, and fulfils both my love of short fiction and my love of other people reading stuff to me so I can give my eyes a rest. If you fancy some free short stories and you want to have a taste for what is available in the magazines then I highly recommend checking it out.

Welcome to Transmissions From Beyond, the biweekly podcast of stories selected from the pages of the TTA Press magazines Interzone (science fiction & fantasy), Black Static (horror) and Crimewave (crime & mystery) by editor Pete Bullock. New stories appear every other Monday.

ARGUMENT FROM INTIMIDATION

1. See this bonfire?
2. Therefore, God exists.

Created by Mingle2.com (Dating for non-zombies)
Proclaiming itself as “One of the Best Free Dating Sites for Zombies”, ZombieHarmony has everything you need to find that special undead partner.

Are you a slow-moving zombie who likes chasing injured people whilst groaning, searching for that fast-moving zombie with missing limbs and a taste for brains? Then ZombieHarmony is the best and quite possibly only place that will meet your needs.

…Braaaaiiiinnnnssssss…

I’ve been usng Wowio.com for a while now as they had a nice service which provided free PDF downloads of ebooks and comics with embedded advertising and user information so you didn’t go spreading them around. It worked well and they have a decent selection of books and comics with quite a few very good titles from famous authors. The only downside was the site was for US residents only so using it from any other country was not really an option.

However a while back I logged in to find a message stating the site was closed and would reopen as a worldwide site so anyone could read the books from any country. Sounds good but I’ve now checked it out and they have changed the way books can be read.

The free PDFs are history and you can now read all the titles online for free using their own reader. This whilst not as good as the PDF downloads is at least a good compromise for those countries that couldn’t previously access any of the books. However you can get the PDF files but you now have to pay rather high prices and not all books are available in all countries.

I’m not sure how successful this will be. I’ll continue to use it for reading free books online and it’s a good resource, it’s just a shame they couldn’t keep the advertising supported free PDF downloads.

Went down the river without my little distracting friend and caught a nice big batch of crayfish.

Boiled them up in some salted water for about 6/7 minutes and they were delicious. Thought they might taste a bit muddy out of the river but once the gut is removed you are left with lovely clean tasting flesh.

Yummmmmm…I like free food.