Finally, the full song of the “Country Roads” cover from Fallout 76 has been released on the Tubes of You:
The song was sung by a group called “Spank Live,” I think. If it’s the same group as the one I found via my Google-Fu, they’re usually an acapella rhythm combo act as displayed in this performance of “Duke of Earl.”
Anyhoo, it was driving me bonkers that I couldn’t hear the complete cover, and it seemed odd that the fandom (or Bethesda) hadn’t unearthed the performers behind it yet. That’s one national nightmare we can safely put behind us.
I just ran across an animated GIF from the following vintage commercial. I’m trying to envision the brainstorming process that resulted in the creation of this product, and I can’t do so without thinking that there was a gas leak or other mind-altering conditions at play:
Out of curiosity, I saw one of these on eBay for $55, in case you didn’t want to build your own.
A hurried departure for a family get-together meant I had to delay a noting of Harlan Ellison’s passing until tonight. The accompanying image seems to be the only one available of Ellison having a cameo appearance on Babylon-5 as a Psi Cop without digging out my old B-5 DVDs and then finding something that can actually play the things. Anyway, I found it at the bottom of a petition page for high-def Blu-Ray collections of the show, so credit where credit is due. The Corps thanks the efforts of the petitioner, though (unless I missed them) the Blu-Ray thing probably won’t happen.
Anyway, to the actual subject at hand: Science fiction writer Harlan Ellison has passed away after a long and strange career of being a prolific writer and notorious curmudgeon. Even from his early days, he had something of a reputation, even among other sci-fi writers that had reputations of their own. I think the earliest clue I got about his persona was in one of the best bathroom books I’ve ever owned, “Asimov Laughs Again.” After a bit of a rough introduction to each other, Asimov was asked to point out Ellison during an event at a sci-fi convention. As Harlan wasn’t of towering statue, Asimov asked Ellison to stand up so everyone could see him. He then said something to the effect of, “No, they still can’t see you. Maybe if you stood on the lap of the person sitting next to you?”
It’s hard to tell which tales of his bad luck (or abrasive personality) affecting his career path are true or false, which I suppose adds to his legend. One that wasn’t about him per se but was a story I heard from a former colleague was told to me when I worked at the Yellow Pages. A salesman who was a collector of old science fiction books pointed out one of the space-filler ads we ran in the Yellow Pages. It was just a small square with some dotted lines and a header that read “Notes.” In the days before the internet was available everywhere on every device, if he didn’t have any paper and decided to remove the page from the phone book with the information he needed, this salesman would always write, “Sorry about the book. (Signed) Harlan Ellison.”
We have no idea if there are hotels or other places of business that got upset at Mr. Ellison for his rampant vandalism, but in case anyone ever ran across that while trying to find a restaurant’s phone number, you now know the truth. Unless Harlan did that kind of thing, too.
Anyway, rest in peace Mr. Ellison, I’ve enjoyed a lot of your works, I’m glad you helped as Babylon-5‘s conceptual consultant, and I even liked both the story and the video game, “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream.” I’m not sure I can recommend the game, as I don’t know what shape it’s in these days. The original was really buggy (I think one part might have even been unwinnable on the old CD-ROM version I used to have), but you get to hear Ellison as the voice of the angry A.I. called AM, so there’s that. There’s also (warning: not for young sci-fi fans) a commentary-free walkthrough on YouTube, which might be an easier way to experience it if you’re not into point-n-click adventures.
Also, for some reason, he did a commercial for the infamous Geo car line:
It’s not so much a funny commercial apart from knowing how the cars didn’t quite catch on and that someone decided that Harlan Ellison would be a boffo spokesperson. If anyone knows why he was picked, please leave a comment. I don’t think he did much in 1989 apart from a book of film reviews, so maybe sci-fi writers were in vogue?
We’re under a severe heat advisory in the middle of the country for the rest of the week, to the point that it’s really noticeable how poor a choice a black case was for your cell phone when it comes to solar radiation. Maybe these will help take our minds off of the rising temps:
• As someone who remembers her deadpan snark fondly, I’m interested to see the MTV cartoon Daria will be getting a reboot. More in-depth news on this to follow on Sick Sad World. Check your local listings.
• If you use a large desk calendar and remember the Cold War, you might enjoy this gallery of calendars drawn on by a mid-level DoD employee over several years. Follow events you may have experienced or heard about in history class! Possibly feel really old!
• We end with a little time-waster that reminds me of SimEarth combined with a humorous Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book: Petty Puny Planet. Make decisions for your world every 100 years and watch what the inhabitants do based on your choices. There is a wizard hat involved, so bonus points for that.
It’s video games all around. First up, for the next day and a half (as of this posting), Shadowrun Returns Deluxe is free on Humblebundle! It’s a good diversion until that new Cyberpunk 2077 game from CD Projekt Red is released in June of 2019.
Also, there’s a new Grow game you can play in your browser: Grow: Comeback! There are only six items to choose from to make the hero become heroic again, so it won’t take too many tries to get them in the optimal order. Even so, there are some amusing animations to go along with certain kinds of failure.
If you have funds you want to burn through, Steam is having their summer sale. This time around, it includes a simple base-defense game you can use to earn dress-up items for your alien base-defender, trading cards, and a chance to win a free game. If I understand it correctly, you pick one of four planets to help defend, choose a zone to shoot other aliens in, and the amount of time you spend goes towards your chances of winning one of four games per planet in some kind of online drawing. I’ve no idea how many games are being given away, the defense game is pretty mediocre by browser game standards, and it appears you can earn time spent on a planet just by clicking on it and letting your Steam client idle while your alien stares at the contested zones.
Hopefully, I’ve given everyone something to do with their limitless free time, right? 🙂
If you recall games like Battlezone with even a hint of nostalgia, you’ll probably enjoy this short film called Tank, which is an homage to those old glowing-line video games of yore:
A hurried departure for a family get-together meant I had to delay a noting of Harlan Ellison’s passing until tonight. The accompanying image seems to be the only one available of Ellison having a cameo appearance on Babylon-5 as a Psi Cop without digging out my old B-5 DVDs and then finding something that can actually play the things. Anyway, I found it at the bottom of 
We’re under a severe heat advisory in the middle of the country for the rest of the week, to the point that it’s really noticeable how poor a choice a black case was for your cell phone when it comes to solar radiation. Maybe these will help take our minds off of the rising temps:
It’s video games all around. First up, for the next day and a half (as of this posting), 
