MidSouthCon , the Beatles, the Booker, the hooker

Good morning, bookies! Stand by for news. This is the Blog for Saturday, October 11. I have no idea why Blogger is datelining this for Friday. Is time different in Googleland?

First, a request. If you like this blog, please send a link to anyone you think might be warped enough to find it entertaining and/or informative. If you are so inclined, subscribe. Your friendly neighborhood bookseller would certainly appreciate it. The content will grow as time goes by, but this past week has been tough because aged relatives have needed some attention.

*** MidSouthCon is slowly, but surely, filling out their guest roster for next year. Yesterday Stanton Friedman was added to the lineup. If you've ever watched a show on UFOs, Area 51, Roswell or Alien Abductions, you will probably recognize Friedman. The GOH is Mike Resnick and the Artist GOH is Vincent DiFate. A good lineup so far, I suppose. Let's see who else gets added.

For Memphis and Mid-Southerners who are fans of SFF (Science Fiction Fantasy) and don't know what MidSouthcon is...shame on you. Get ye hence to yonder website and put aside your errors!

http://www.midsouthcon.org/

*** Obituary- Peter Vansittart died October 4 at age 88, reports the Guardian. Known for his imaginative historical novels, Vansittart always seemed to stitch the most unlikely epochs separated by centuries into a cohesive whole. His last novel, Secret Protocols, was published in 2006.

*** Heresy or truth? Although not strictly book related, your friendly neighborhood bookseller finds the linked story below interesting. A Cambridge professor opines that the Beatles weren't folk or youth heroes, they were just capitalists cashing in on the hysteria they generated.

I certainly hope so.

I was never a big Beatles fan. I had no ill feelings toward them, but there was always this vaguely uneasy feeling that something wasn't on the up and up. This is why I preferred The Stones, there was never any doubt about their motivation. Sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll and money. The Beatles always implied they were somehow above all of that, and I never bought it. Apparently I wasn't the only one. You'll need to log in to read the link. If you don't want to log in, ignore the link, the commentators' name is David Fowler, he's an historian at Cambridge University. The quote you need to know is this: "They did about as much to represent the interests of the nation's young people as the Spice Girls did in the 1990s." Perfect.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/oct/09/youngpeople.history

*** The Booker Prize will be awarded in London on Tuesday and there are dozens of articles to choose from previewing the event. I've picked one a bit off the beaten track, highlighting two Aussies who are up for the prize. My reasoning? I like Aussies.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24460816-5001986,00.html

Oh, and there is no hooker. That was just to jazz up the blog title for the day.