The metal chick wet t-shirt contest continues...

Some time ago, I compared the music videos for Nightwish's "Nemo" and Evanescence's "Lithium". Among the many points of similarity between them, both lead singers (Tarja and Amy) end up submerged in water.

I need to add another video to the list: After Forever's "Energize". Watch lead singer Floor Jansen end up in the water during the chorus:



I don't think otherwise Floor matches up with Tarja and Amy. This video alternates between a forest during an autumnal windstorm, and a burning soundstage. No snow-covered field to be seen. Also, while Floor is wearing pseudo-Victorian goth attire in this video, it's not her usual style of dress. A straight-ahead rocker chick, Floor usually wears sleeveless T-shirts with jeans or PVC pants.

All kidding aside, After Forever rules!

Read two books and call me in the morning

Last night, Dr. Vincent Lam, winner of the 2006 Giller Prize, did a special author visit at work. This was part of our Asian Heritage Month celebrations (which I mentioned briefly last month).

Dr. Vincent Lam, Toronto emergency room physician and Giller Prize-winning author.	The Giller Prize-winning Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures.

Although running a bit late (thanks to the notorious traffic situation of the Greater Toronto Area), no one seemed to notice or make a fuss about it. Dr. Lam began with a brief introduction about himself, then read sections from "Winston", one of the stories in Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures. To be honest this is one of my least favourite stories from the book, but it is one with several conflicting emotions (concern, paranoia, suspense, humour) and probably best illustrates the various aspects of the working lives of medical professionals that Lam endeavours to communicate throughout the book.

Afterwards, I read some audience-submitted questions to Dr. Lam, which he answered with candor and good humour, after which he signed books, including a couple for me. Deranged Squirrel (who brought her sister K along), MadJenny and The Blogless One also came out on their night off to see Dr. Lam.

Dr. Vincent Lam signs my copies of his book.	The signed title page.

I found Dr. Lam to be an incredibly nice and approachable person, and wish him every success with his next book.

Two-fisted science stings like a bee! Or an ant, or a wasp...

As kind of an update to my previous post on Two-Fisted Science, here's another entry.

Justin O. Schmidt is an entomologist best known as the author of the Schmidt Sting Pain Index, a listing of various insect bites and stings and the relative amount of pain caused.

How did he acquire his data? He let himself get stung by all these insects. On purpose.

Via Retrospectacle.

The mirror has two faces

So I just got back from seeing two bands that are ostensibly from the same scene, but with vastly different approaches. Italy's Lacuna Coil and the Netherlands' The Gathering. Both are female-fronted European goth-metal bands, but couldn't be more different.

We got there too late to see the first opener, Stolen Babies, and only caught the last two songs of In This Moment's set (again, both female-fronted metal bands, but not goth-metal).

This was The Gathering's first night on the tour, replacing their countrymen Within Temptation--whom I would have preferred to see, but The Gathering were quite good. They have more of a slow-paced, somber alternative sound than a true metal sound (though their earlier stuff is heavier). Here's an example; one of their more popular songs, "Saturnine":



Also interesting is how, well, normal The Gathering are. They dress quite casually--jeans and shirts, no weird hairstyles. Like my sister (who was with me) said of lead singer Anneke's outfit, "That's something I would wear". They were very humble in appearance and mannerisms. The guitarist, René, looked like a shy geek (complete with glasses) and the bassist, Marjolein, gave these cute little golf claps to the audience. At one point, Anneke mentioned how their last stop had been New York City: "It was nice, but also, not so nice," she stammered. "But tonight is like bliss for us."

Lacuna Coil was the complete opposite. They were very theatrical with very showy PVC outfits and a fairly impressive light show. The two lead singers, Cristina Scabbia and Andrea Ferro, were incredibly dramatic in their stage presence and rapport with the audience. During one duet, Andrea was on his knees while Cristina towered over him. Of course, being Italian they were gesticulating wildly all the time. Here are some pics from my phone:

Lacuna Coil in blue Doppler Shift.	Lacuna Coil in red Doppler Shift

Here's Lacuna Coil playing Jimmy Kimmel Live:



So, it was a pretty cool night, even if both bands stuck pretty close to the recorded versions of their songs and didn't really mix things up much.

Designer guys

Intelligent design:



Unintelligent design:



Just plain stupid:

Star gazing

This evening, the Deranged Squirrel, Mad Jenny, and The Blogless One (AKA JL), went to an author visit (at our library) from the Dean of Canadian science fiction, Robert J. Sawyer.

Alas, poor Hominid--I knew him!

Sawyer read from his latest release, Rollback (which is highly recommended), and fielded questions from the audience. He is a talented public speaker and storyteller, and very well-informed and practiced, nimbly parrying and riposting a question of mine concerning the first novel of his I read, Calculating God, and the Anthropic Principle. Afterward, he autographed two books for me:

The Hugo Award-winning Hominids.	Its immediate sequel, Humans.

Click on the photos to enlarge them. As you can see, Robert J. Sawyer is a keen observer of humanity.

Six of one; a 101 of another

Or, the False Prophet in Hell

To celebrate my 101st post here at False Prophecy, why not see just where in Hell I'll end up?

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Sixth Level of Hell - The City of Dis!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Low
Level 2 (Lustful)	Very High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	High
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Very Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Very High
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Very High
Level 7 (Violent)	High
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Moderate
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Moderate

Take the Dante's Inferno Test

For the Republic of Heaven!

OK, so from a Facebook note from IM, I was directed to the website for the upcoming Golden Compass movie. I took the "Find your Daemon" test and got this result:

More monsters from China

China Miéville, "the sexiest man in politics"

China Miéville, known for his innovative "grunge fantasy" books for adults (and lesser known for his Marxist politics), has written his first children's book:

Miéville has turned his hand to children's fantasy fiction with a fast-paced firecracker of a book, Un Lun Dun. Set in a kind of upside-down London, an "ab-city" filled with all of London's lost and broken things, it tells the story of two girls who stumble upon the strange, alternate metropolis and must save it from a destructive enemy - a sinister smog. While the tale itself may have a familiar ring to it, everything about the world of Un Lun Dun and the characters that populate it is wildly, almost breathlessly, inventive. The imagery is surreal - characters have birdcages for heads, buildings shift around, words turn rebellious - and the wordplay adroit. It also strikes a rich vein of humour and fun. The Binjas are dustbins that sprout limbs and strike karate poses, the Black Windows are fantastic - in every sense - monsters at Webminster Abbey.

This sounds a lot like a Neil Gaiman premise, but I have faith in Miéville's writing to bring this across in his own unique voice.

Via Bookninja.

Don't you know your Dewey Decimal System?



Thanks to Queen Azura for the pic.