Ki-Ki-Ki, Ma-Ma-Ma

I'm delighted to finally own Harry Manfredini's legendary music for Friday the 13th -- the score to not only the original film, but the first five sequels, too, all of it on six glorious CDs.  

The music, long thought lost, has just been released in this wonderful boxset (appropriately enough) on Friday 1/13/12, by Lalaland records. As usual, they've done an excellent job both with the presentation and content.

And as a bonus, I was lucky enough to place my order quickly and get a signed copy. I love Mafredini's inscription on the upper left hand corner of the booklet with the infamous "Ki-ki-ki, ma-ma-ma" in actual score notation... Very classy.

Book #38, The Professor and the Madman, Simon Winchester

I enjoyed a switch in gears to non-fiction with Simon Winchester's The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of The Oxford English Dictionary, a highly involving account of the unlikely story behind one of the OED's most prolific contributors. Anyone who finds pleasure in stories about people who pursue seemingly insurmountable intellectual/academic tasks, and who has an interest in the history of the English language, should find much of interest here.

Some good links at the OED site about the two protagonists of this non-fiction yarn (and yes, despite Fowler, as Winchester explains, we're quite safe in claiming a plurality of protagonists):
William Chester Minor, Sir James Augustus Henry Murray.

Reading this account has made me that much more appreciative of owning the OED both in physical and electronic format. The magnifying-glass-included one-volume edition, currently in Spain, was probably the most exciting book of a scholarly nature I received during my adolescence -- a fantastic gift from ubergenerous parents to a word-nerdy son. But the CD-ROM version is the easiest, most practical to use -- and it's just so much fun to browse!! And now, off to obambulate (first recorded in 1614) through its myriad entries...

Proud to Drown

Jeffrey Ford explains it best on his blog; it started with me loving his collection The Drowned Life ... and ended with the undeniable epitome of nerdish reverence and uberfannish salutation -- yes, the creation of a T-shirt inspired by the book.

I anticipate these will sell by the dozens to rabid readers once the book smashes into stores.

Who knows, I may even wear it during part of WorldCon. Such are the endless possibilities afforded geeks.