LDR + CLD

C'mon, Let's Death + Robots

Top of the news: yesterday I got word from Tim Miller’s Blur studios that I could finally announce the imminent arrival of the next season of Love, Death + Robots.

The reason this permission came to me is because one of the ten stories in this latest collection is an adaptation of my own “400 Boys,” which is certainly my best known story, having appeared in Omni Magazine before cyberpunk was a word, and sometime thereafter collected in the Mirrorshades anthology that today serves as cyberpunk’s first coprolite.

The message from Blur encouraged us to spread the word by reposting Netflix trailers and imagery ahead of the May 15th release. However, to keep a unified promotional front, individual contributors were asked not to share personal work, information, or storylines outside of Netflix’s marketing push. I know how this works, it’s no different than a product roll-out at Valve, so in the interest of not muddying the waters, I’m not going to get into stories of how this came about—not that there’s anything juicy or terribly interesting to impart, and I have already spoken in the past about my longstanding relationship with Tim Miller and his attempt to adapt “400 Boys” for an earlier anthology project. If you are familiar with both my story and with LD+R, you will probably recognize imagery from “400 Boys” in the above trailer, and you will also recognize the distinctive style of one of the show’s most distinguished directors. I look forward to discussing details more openly as Netflix reveals them. And I also look forward to seeing the final episode along with the rest of the fans. I saw a nearly final version and I thought they did a fantastic job. Tim is a devoted, savvy reader of science fiction, and a respectful adapter. I can’t think of anyone else would who have enthusiastically adapted J. G. Ballard’s “The Drowned Giant” for a Netflix animated series. So I am really happy with how this has all turned out. People who don’t know me or my stories and just stumble across this as they mow through their Netflix queue are likely to have their eyes pop out of their skulls and bounce off their giant OLED screens.

Anyway…more when I can say more!

In other news, while I didn’t have to do anything to make “400 Boys” happen, I do have a new song out called “C’mon, Let’s Disappear.” So far it is only out on Bandcamp and SoundCloud, but on April 15th it will also be on Spotify, Apple, YouTube, etc.

The song originated in a workshop led by Brian Eno for the School of Song. At the end of his lecture series, and his endlessly fascinating Q&A’s and discursions, he gave the class an assignment to write a modern song of resistance. After stating his dislike of lyrics and predictable musical patterns, we were to write a wordy, singable song with simple melodies and no instrumental breaks. Mine was composed in the shower and quickly transcribed as a single loop on an Ableton Move, and when I decided it was worth saving, I got with my ol’ producer pal Ryan Pollie and he assembled an elite musical force capable of saving my boring arrangement from monotony.

Beyond this latest news, I suppose there are other developments I didn’t think stackworthy. After the Pulse, remember that? It’s closing in on 100K streams on Spotify, even as it drifts away from my attention. This is how it always goes with creative work. You think about nothing else for weeks, months, years…and then you release them, and one day you turn around and realize you haven’t thought of them at all for ages. You’re too busy thinking about whatever the current thing is. That’s where am I right now. After the Pulse was last year’s obsession. What next? What next?! That’s me, talking to myself. I have a few ideas, and this new song figures further in one of them.