A nutty-crunchy cult, a human-gorgon PI, a family fit for My Big Fat Greek Wedding, hot god guys (not a metaphor), Federal spooks, zombie minions, and a dreamy Italian detective… welcome to San Francisco and Lucienne Diver’s second installment of her Latter-Day Olympians series, Crazy in the Blood, which delivers all that and a gaggle…
The Lady Lazarus saga’s final chapter for the tale that is, of the three, the most human: Rebel Angels (Tor Books, Hardcover, $26.99, March, 2013). It’s October, 1939 and our heroine Magda is saying goodbye to her little sister Gisele, sending her off with spymaster Knox to be protected by Churchill in the UK whilst Magda…
Summer’s singing its last karaoke and the flash mobs of Gangnam Style have come and gone for the nonce. But back-to-school, be ye student or mentor, doesn’t have to mean the fun’s over—just shifting gears. So let’s go to Tampa with Gina, BF Bobby, and her vamped-up posse for adventure #3 in Lucienne Diver’s [[[Fangtastic]]]…
So you want a light bite, some coffee or tea or sake, healthy food, atmosphere cozy and unpretentious, but sophisticated, even romantic? Search no further than Hell’s Kitchen for the Japanese dessert bar Kyotofu (705 Ninth Ave. bet. W. 47th & W. 48th Sts.). Originally from Kyoto and other Japanese locations, you can also find…
What began as intimate, largely internal, spiritual conflict in Michele Lang’s historical urban romantic dark fantasy series with Lady Lazarus explodes onto the mind’s screen with the second installment, Dark Victory (Tor, Jan. ’12, hardcover $25.99, Kindle $9.99, release party at Book Review in Huntington, Jan. 22nd 4-6 p.m.), with new spiritual-ethical dilemmas of how…
What do you get when you take a dystopian who-done-it, three suspects, a composer-soprano-instrumentalist-victim, set it to music that is part Baroque opera, tango, Hindustani classical, and hip-hop, add multimedia elements (including a projected big, singing head and funky fake commercials for deadly fashion accessories and wacked-out news broadcasts), dress it all up in steampunk…
It has been documented that the first word a child learns to utter is, most commonly, “no”. Michele Lang’s historical urban dark fantasy, Lady Lazarus (Tor, trade Sept. 2010 $14.99, mass market June 2011 $7.99), and her heroine Magda make a fine art of “no” that turns into a resounding “yes” on the eve of…
In our era of Existential angst, ain’t it time that we make time to laugh at our messy human selves? If you’re ready for a good dose of some of that and just in time for New York Comic Con this weekend, join the folks at the much-lauded Brick Theater in Williamsburg, Brooklyn with the…
Summer will be here before we know it. That means vacation and beach reading time! And what summer would be complete without a vampire to cozy up with? (We remind you that [[[True Blood]]] season 4 premieres on HBO June 26th.) This summer, let me recommend that you bring along installments 1 & 2 of…
Coinciding with NYAF and the various Asian fall harvest festivals, the first 3 weeks of October in NYC were full of Asian rock music events—from Hiroshi Kono’s Mar Creation’s J-Summit showcase at Webster Hall (10/2) featuring Lilac, to supergroup VAMPS appearing at the convention and rockin’ Roseland (10/9), to an Asian street fair (10/9) on…
It would’ve been hard to’ve topped my peak experience of my first NYAF (The New York Anime Festival), last year. And much has changed in the past year, since I’ve become co-chair of Animinicon SoHo and president of the SoHo Host Club and am working with various colleagues on playing and promoting Japanese music here…
Japan’s nicest bad boys are, as one of their new album cuts says, causing “Trouble,” out on their first world tour, appearing to frenzied fans. And they’re stopping at NYC’s Roseland Ballroom for only the second time in their 6-year history of music-making together on Saturday, October 9th to rock our world. The concert is…
