The rose will grow on ice before we change our mind

[sovay]

I had a run-off-my-feet day, but I love the newly revealed cover for Afterlives 2024: The Year's Best Death Fiction, edited by Sheree Renée Thomas and shortly forthcoming from Psychopomp, in whose liminal mosaic is reprinted my queer, maritime, ice-dreaming story "Twice Every Day Returning." I am looking forward to that table of contents for myself. Have some links.

1. Courtesy of isis: British Airways' "May We Haveth One's Attention" (2024) may be the most charming safety video I have seen since the legendary "Dumb Ways to Die" (2012). My only excuse for missing it last year is that I can't remember sleeping that month.

2. Courtesy of moon_custafer: James Cagney, Chester Morris, and Edward G. Robinson on a Ferris wheel in 1934. The dark glasses donned by Mr. Morris are doing him no favors whatsoever except that he's making enthusiastic eye contact in the sun-flooded overhead shot.

3. Courtesy of fleurdelis41: "The thread about the Loyal Edinburgh Spearmen; a force of very doubtful military significance." The caricature of "Mr Dundas" with his beaver hat and spectacles reminds me irresistibly of an Edward Gorey character. The overenthusiastic lighting of the beacons actually made me laugh out loud.

4. I discovered the inimitably named Blackbeard's Tea Party some years ago with the furious drumbeat of their "Ford o' Kabul River" and then almost immediately lost track of them again, but as they seem to have come out since with the whaling EP Leviathan! (2018) and the nightmare siren song of "Mother Carey," we're still good. Since they closed their first album with "Chicken on a Raft," I am delighted that their recorded repertoire now also includes "Roll and Go."

5. I meant last week to link the Divine Comedy's "Invisible Thread" (2025), especially since it was my father who found it after I had sent him another song from the same album.

Her memory for a blessing, Darleane Hoffman who studied transuranic elements and still got to die at ninety-eight. She was not unstable.

Comments

[poliphilo]

Love BTP. Didn't know they'd done Kipling/Bellamy covers. Thanks. That version of Ford o'Kabul River" is terrific.

[sholio]

Yes! I saw the British Airways safety video on my flight here a couple of weeks ago. It's hilarious, and I also haven't seen an entire plane full of people pay that much attention to a safety video in ages. xD

[selkie]

Well, now I’ve seen the brace position from horseback! My core hurts just thinking about it, but that was an excellent video. Thank you.

[larryhammer]

We saw "May We Haveth One's Attention" in the wild on a BA flight this summer. It was especially appreciated after an American Airlines by the numbers bit.

[mrissa]

I did sleep in every month of last year, and I still slept on that video, so thanks for bringing it to my attention, my mom is sending it to basically everyone she likes now.

[gwynnega]

That book cover is gorgeous!

I really enjoyed the safety video, and the photo of Cagney and co. is delightful.

[davidgillon]

"Twice Every Day Returning."

Oh my!

[asakiyume]

The British Airways safety video is the best I've seen since the Air India's one with the classical dancing. --Love it!