Scott Edelman

I go Crazy behind the scenes in the Marvel Bullpen

Scott — Sat, 11 May 2013 00:51:56 +0000

Earlier this week I shared a photo taken in high school which shows me wearing a tutu and a black-and-white sequined bra—a photo which once seen cannot be unseen and therefore deserves some kind of trigger warning before you click.

While flipping through old albums in search of that photo, I came across a couple of other images which feature an equally unrecognizable while also bizarre younger me. These were taken when I worked in the Marvel Bullpen, and were used in the fake ad below which appeared in an issue of Crazy magazine.

Behold!

Let me know if that’s a look you think I should attempt to recapture.

And if there’s any doubt that these truly reflect what I looked like during my Marvel Bullpen days (well, for part of my time there anyway; I was chameleon-like), check out the sign visible through the doorway in that second photo!

Check out Next restaurant’s hilariously enigmatic video promoting its new Vegan menu

Scott — Wed, 08 May 2013 16:21:24 +0000

Next restaurant, which reinvents itself three times a year, releases a video to promote each new menu. Sometimes, as with its video for The Hunt, you get a good idea what you’ll be eating while there. But the just-released video for the new Vegan menu, which launches tonight, is a bit more … enigmatic.

Enigmatic … but hilarious.

After having watched that, I have absolutely no idea what Next will have in store for me when I sit down at my Kitchen Table at the end of the month.

One thing I do know, however—it makes me want to go on a heist with those guys!

Am I doomed?

Scott — Tue, 07 May 2013 12:59:48 +0000

I picked up a Fitbit Flex over the weekend to track the level of my activity and the quality of my sleep, and have been wearing the device on my wrist 24/7 since around 6:00 p.m. Saturday. The chart below reveals disturbing news about what my Monday was like, even though I logged 10,560 steps.

I was sedentary for 12 hours and six minutes! Since I already know that staying seated during the day is a killer, that’s not good news.

As you can see, the ratio of sedentary to active so far this morning isn’t quite as unbalanced, but I’m sure that by day’s end, it’ll be looking a lot like yesterday.

So what’s a guy with a deskjob to do? Am I doomed?

WARNING: Once seen, this photo of me cannot be unseen

Scott — Tue, 07 May 2013 01:35:44 +0000

Apparently, the Internet trolls have their knives out for John Scalzi tonight. (But is there ever a night during which the Internet trolls don’t have their knives out for John Scalzi?)

After he posted a dashing photo of himself wearing Rachel Caine‘s red shoes at the Romantic Times Booklovers Convention, “The sexist dipshits are passing around the picture of me in high heels, as if I did something shameful. Because they are sexist dipshits.”

So to give those sexist dipshits a distraction that might take some heat off John, and to show I’ve always been willing to do pretty much anything and not care what anyone else might think, may I present—

Me as a high school junior. Wearing a tutu. And a black-and-white sequined bra. A black-and-white sequined bra that needed to be heavily stuffed with tissues.

You’re welcome.

My April 2013 dreams: Elaine Stritch, John Barrowman, Ray Bradbury, and more

Scott — Sat, 04 May 2013 11:48:43 +0000

I have an extremely active dream life, and those that I remember I share each morning on Twitter. Once a month, I harvest them from the rest of my tweets and share them here. So below is what went through my sleeping mind during April.

My guest stars included Elaine Stritch, Jamie Foxx, John Barrowman, Woody Allen, Ray Bradbury, Paul Newman, Mad Men’s Roger Sterling, and more.

Step into last month’s subconscious …

APRIL 2013

  I dreamt that as I headed to an opera house, I saw ‪@doctorow rushing the other way, having forgotten his ticket. We agreed to speak later. 30 Apr

I dreamt I was part of a drug deal gone bad, but somehow was able to get away and hide in an alley until it all blew over. 28 Apr

I dreamt I was with ‪@mrbelm at a party run by the people behind that world’s 50 best restaurants list, but couldn’t get to any of the food! 28 Apr

I dreamt I was carrying my father’s coffin from the hearse to the gravesite, and one of the pallbearers was Mad Men’s Roger Sterling.   28 Apr

I dreamt I was on a courtesy computer in a hotel lobby with ‪@amelia_beamer, searching fruitlessly for an article I’d hoped to show her.   27 Apr

I dreamt I attended Xavier’s School for Gifted Mutants, and all around me, kids pranked each other. I never found out my own power though.   26 Apr

I dreamt that after my waitress brought my entree, I noticed she was — Elaine Stritch! So I jumped up and hugged her and wouldn’t let go.   25 Apr

I dreamt a man with a razor tried to mug me on a deserted nighttime street, but I kept spinning out of his reach and eventually got away.   25 Apr

I dreamt I was given a tour of an extremely odd museum, about which I remember little, save for the surreal room of deflated balloons.   25 Apr

I dreamt I spotted a kidnapper with his child victim in a bus station. When he seemed distracted, I tackled him and held until police came.   24 Apr

I dreamt someone came into a shop with a rifle and began shooting. I wasn’t hit, but someone who was fell on me, so I pretended I was dead.   24 Apr

I dreamt my wife dropped me off on Flatbush Avenue with a VCR tape I needed to return, and I wandered, unable to find the video store.   24 Apr

I dreamt Paul Newman asked me how my three kids were doing, and even though (in the dream) I only had two, I didn’t want to correct him.   23 Apr

I dreamt I arrived home to my apt. and picked up packages from neighbors — ‪@effjayem across the hall, ‪@Liz_Hand and ‪@john_clute next door.   22 Apr

I dreamt I showed Irene magazine pics of an opera house done up in gold and red velvet — and suddenly we were there, descending the stairs!   22 Apr

I dreamt a Chihuly-like sculpture representing my sins was lowered from the ceiling. I smashed it and collected the shards to catalog later.   22 Apr

I dreamt I listened as ‪@BillWillingham sang a song called “Whatever Happened to the Spring?” in the style of Richard Burton’s “Camelot.”   21 Apr

I dreamt I’d lost to Rick Perry in a primary (odd, there’s no way we’d ever be in the same party) and gave him advice on what to do next.   21 Apr

I dreamt Ray Bradbury and I were up on stage, improvising a duet, singing about brotherhood and how we should all just learn to get along.   21 Apr

I dreamt I was in the hospital (don’t know why) sharing a room with Stephen Colbert. When he was released first, I was quite miffed.   20 Apr

I dreamt I walked through the house I lived in circa 1990 and found my father and son, as they were then, smiling and brushing their teeth.   20 Apr

I dreamt two friends who were supposed to have plastic surgery showed up still looking like their old selves and wouldn’t explain why.   19 Apr

I dreamt I was in the office of Treme‘s Toni Bernette when it began flooding, and ran outside with her to start stacking sandbags.   19 Apr

I dreamt I was set loose with friends in a deliberately cluttered house that was actually a mystery puzzle, seeded with clues to solve it.   19 Apr

I dreamt my wife and I arrived at an Italian restaurant highly recommended by friends, but just as we settled in, I woke. Never got a taste!   19 Apr

I dreamt I dropped by ‪@ceciliatan‘s apartment to marvel at the waterfalls she’d installed, and to dismantle them so I could bring them home.   19 Apr

I dreamt ‪@TomBrevoort invited me to a Marvel Bullpen reunion, and sent along special license plates I’d need to access the parking lot.   18 Apr

I dreamt I walked down a narrow, snowy country road, slipping and sliding and having to squeeze to one side so cars could get by. Barely.   18 Apr

I dreamt I was talking to my brother about my father, in that moment forgetting Dad was dead, and then … remembering. Unwelcome knowledge.   18 Apr

I dreamt I was in a dealers room selling my son’s old comics and TV show scripts. Problem though — I had no idea what prices to ask.   17 Apr

I dreamt I was a waiter, and brought in homemade bread and corned beef for lunch, hoping to impress the owner and get a promotion. I failed.   17 Apr

I dreamt I was in my ’70s Park Slope apartment, hurriedly getting ready for work — yet not at Marvel, which it would have been. But where?   17 Apr

I dreamt I was chatting with Paul di Filippo and ‪@EllenDatlow at Readercon — then she pulled the bookmark out of my F&SF and lost my place.   17 Apr

I dreamt that while taking out the trash at my NYC brownstone (yeah, right), I returned to find a FOR SALE sign out front and was baffled.   16 Apr

I dreamt I worked as a photo editor at a science mag, and was working with a photographer to tweak her pic of 100s of galaxies in Photoshop.   16 Apr

I dreamt I went to an office, but couldn’t find a place to work, because EVERY cubicle contained someone pitching a Kickstarter campaign.   14 Apr

I dreamt that as I wandered, everyone I saw was eating scooter pies, even those I know who shouldn’t and wouldn’t eat scooter pies.   14 Apr

I dreamt my wife hired John Barrowman to act as emcee for a musical being performed in honor of our anniversary. Lots of good singing!   14 Apr

I dreamt I was sitting with the ms. of an old unpublished novel of mine, editing it for submission, and decided — no, this cannot be saved.   12 Apr

I dreamt I was up for an Oscar, but what seemed to excite me the most was when my boxed head appeared on the screen with the other nominees.   12 Apr

I dreamt I reread the first dozen issues of Fantastic Four, which I stored loose in a plastic shopping bag in my shed. Horrifying, right?   11 Apr

I dreamt I played pro baseball, and looked sadly out at our field on opening day. The infield was a swamp! And we didn’t know how to fix it.   9 Apr

I dreamt a guy tried to hire me to return something for him to a store he knew would give him trouble, but I turned him down. Not my thing.   9 Apr

I dreamt I substituted at the last minute in a friend’s play. Did fine, but when it was over, confused by the order of the curtain calls.   9 Apr

I dreamt Craig Yoe won an award for a Jim Aparo bio, and he had me go up to accept on his behalf. When I woke, I thought: Jim Aparo? Really?   8 Apr

I dreamt I entered a banquet hall with Geoff Landis and Mary Turzillo, and wished her good luck, because she was nominated for an award.   5 Apr

  I dreamt I lectured the Eleventh Doctor — not Matt Smith, but the actual Doctor himself — about pride, and earned vs. unearned confidence.   5 Apr

I dreamt I was filming a scene with William Shatner, who kept stepping on my lines by shouting “It’s a wrap!” at the end of each of his.   4 Apr

I dreamt I stood around a BBQ with my Dad (dead 4+ years now) grilling thin strips of meat. I had no sense he’d ever died. He just … was.   4 Apr

I dreamt I was a teenager sorta like Breaking Bad’s Jesse, and was quite nervous as the police stopped me by a train to search my backpack.   4 Apr

I dreamt my wife was placed in witness protection — I watched her shoved in a limo trunk and driven away. I didn’t even get to say goodbye!   4 Apr

I dreamt Irene and I were on a foreign wilderness tour — and for some reason I pushed my possessions through the woods in a shopping cart.   3 Apr

I dreamt Stan Lee and I were on a kids TV show where we held hands and sang “When the Saints Go Marching In” while taking part in a parade.   1 Apr

I dreamt I was in an office talking to the Jamie Foxx In Living Color character Wanda Wayne, but then realized it really WAS Jamie Foxx.   1 Apr

I dreamt I was Woody Allen, defending the final cut of my Star Wars doc to studio execs who thought I should never have tackled the project.   1 Apr

My short story “Things That Never Happened” will soon be happening

Scott — Thu, 02 May 2013 12:35:28 +0000

My short story “Things That Never Happened” will soon appear in Postscripts #30/31 from PS Publishing. The issue, which carries not just a number, but also the title Memoryville Blues, will be out once the signature sheets pass through the hands of all the contributors and make their way back to the publisher.

I’m not sure how long that whole process will take, but while we wait, check out the cover below (which might not be the final design).

Here’s the complete Table of Contents:

“Index of Placebo Effects,” Carol Guess
“Memoryville Blues,” John Grant
“The Kid at Midnight,” Mike Resnick
“Gapping,” Darren Speegle
“Red-Roofed Temples in the Mountains Beneath Me,” Forrest Aguirre
“Buried Eyes,” Lavie Tidhar
“This Time of Day, This Time of Year,” Lynda E. Rucker
“Dreaming Kandresphar,” Darrell Schweitzer
“The Providential Preservation of the Universal Bibliographic Repository,” Andrew Drummond
“Cleavage,” Peter Hardy
“What We Do,” Robert Reed
“Selections From The Expectant Mother Disinformation Handbook,” Robert Guffey
“Kodokushi,” Andrew Hook
“The Valley of Wonders,” Amber D. Sistla
“Blue Vs Red,” Sebastien Doubinsky
“Things That Never Happened,” Scott Edelman
“The Key to Harry,” Allen Ashley and Douglas Thompson
“Behind the Doors,” Ramsey Campbell
“The Rapture,” Jack Dann and Barry N. Malzberg
“The Bell,” Jeremy Adam Smith
“The Lobby,” Alastair Reynolds
“Man’s Ruin,” James Cooper
“The Revelation of Jo Givens,” Nancy Jane Moore
“Wherein We Enter the Museum,” Kit Reed
“Marks and Coconuts,” Anna Tambour

When the issue becomes available, you’ll be able to order it here.

The 2013 list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants is out (and I’ve eaten at four of them)

Scott — Wed, 01 May 2013 00:48:33 +0000

The 2013 list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants has just been released, and I’ve been to four of them. I hope to hit a couple more real soon—especially The Fat Duck, which is a 2014 goal of mine either before or after the London Worldcon.

Click through on restaurants 5, 9, 14, and 15 to see what I thought of them … and prepare to salivate.

1. El Celler de Can Roca,Girona, Catalonia, Spain.
2. Noma, Copenhagen
4. Mugaritz, San Sebastián, Spain
5. Eleven Madison Park, New York City
6. D.O.M., Sao Paulo, Brazil
7. Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, London
8. Arzak, San Sebastián, Spain
9. Steirereck Restaurant, Vienna, Austria
10. Vendôme, Bergisch Gladbach, Germany
11. Per Se, New York City, USA
12. Frantzén/Lindeberg, Stockholm, Sweden
13. The Ledbury, London, UK
14. Astrid y Gastón, Lima, Peru
15. Alinea, Chicago, USA
16. L’Arpège, Paris, France
17. Pujol, Mexico City, Mexico
18. Le Chateaubriand, Paris, France
19. Le Bernardin, New York City, USA
20. Narisawa, Tokyo, Japan
21. Attica, Melbourne, Australia
22. Nihonryori RyuGin, Tokyo, Japan
23. L’Astrance, Paris, France
24. L’Atelier Saint-Germain de Joël Robuchon, Paris, France
25. Hof Van Cleve, Kruishoutem, Belgium
26. Quique Dacosta, Dénia, Spain
27. Le Calandre, Rubano, Italy
28. Mirazur, Menton, France
29. Daniel, New York City, USA
30. Aqua, Wolfsburg, Germany
31. Biko, Mexico City, Mexico
32. Nahm, Bangkok, Thailand
33. The Fat Duck, Bray, UK
34. Fäviken, Järpen, Sweden
35. Oud Sluis, Sluis, Netherlands
36. Amber, Hong Kong, China
37. Vila Joya, Albufeira, Portugal
38. Restaurant Andre, Singapore
39. 8 1/2 Otto E Mezzo Bombana, Hong Kong, China
40. Combal.Zero, Rivoli, Italy
41. Piazza Duomo, Alba, Italia
42. Schloss Schauenstein, Fürstenau, Switzerland
43. Mr & Mrs Bund, Shanghai, China
44. Asador Etxebarri, Atxondo, Spain
45. Geranium, Copenhagen, Denmark
46. Mani, São Paulo, Brasil
47. The French Laundry, Yountville, USA
48. Quay, Sydney, Australia
49. Septime, Paris, France
50. Central, Lima, Perú

Eleven Madison Park’s jump from #10 to #5 makes me think I’ve got to head back for another try, as my underwhelmed reaction continues to trouble me. But next time, it’ll be dinner instead of lunch.

So—how many have YOU managed to hit?

1st peek at Next restaurant’s upcoming Vegan video

Scott — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 20:09:58 +0000

The chameleon-like Next restaurant releases an enigmatic video with each new cuisine it serves (check out The Hunt and Kyoto, for example), so those of us who love the place wonder what we’ll see in support of the new Vegan menu, which begins May 8.

Over on Twitter, Christian Seel just shared a screen grab from that coming video, which has me wondering …

… what does that image have to do with a Vegan cuisine?

My guess? Actor Stephen Bernacki is about to strip off his work clothes, toss away that briefcase, abandon the urban lifestyle, and go back to the land.

Can’t wait to see whether I’m right. And, as usual, can’t wait to get back to Next!

Thanos, Free Comic Book Day, and me

Scott — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 01:58:58 +0000

Next Saturday is Free Comic Book Day, which means that if you wander into a comics shop on May 4, 2013, you might just walk out with a comic book written … by me!

But how is that possible? I haven’t written any comics in decades. How could I possibly have anything in a comic handed out on Free Comic Book Day?

Blame Thanos!

Bill Hall of The Daily Kirby let me know today (beating out Marvel Comics, who’s yet to alert me) that my back-up story from Logan’s Run #6, which starred Thanos and Drax the Destroyer, will be reprinted in Infinity, Marvel’s giveaway for Free Comic Book Day. All because Thanos is now a big deal due to his appearance at the end of The Avengers movie.

The freebie is described as follows:

This May for Free Comic Book Day, prepare yourselves for the greatest battle for survival ever waged in the Marvel Universe as Marvel marches towards Infinity! In this all-new story by the blockbuster creative team of Jonathan Hickman and Jim Cheung, witness the opening shots of the war that will be heard around the galaxy. Plus, get a sneak peek behind a major Marvel release that hasn’t been announced yet and relive Thanos’ first solo story.

“Thanos’ first solo story”?

That turns out to be mine.

But on Free Comic Book Day, it can possibly be yours. So get thee to your local comics shop, which might just have a copy.

And don’t forget to thank Thanos!

Where I’ll be eating during the San Antonio Worldcon

Scott — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 13:32:10 +0000

If you know anything about me, you know I like to make every meal count. So when I head off to a convention, I do my research. And with LoneStarCon 3 right around the corner (hey, when you’re making strategic plans like these, what can I say, August does seem just around the corner), I’ve already scouted out where I want to eat in San Antonio.

First on my hit list—did you know that the Culinary Institute of America, training ground for so many fine chefs, has a branch in San Antonio? And that they operate a restaurant? I had no idea, but it’s called Nao, and I aim to eat there either the Friday or Saturday night of the convention.

That’s their causitas made with purple potato puree and crab above, which I look forward to seeing on a plate in front of me in a few months.

Next up, Bliss, where chef Mark Bliss, considered a San Antonio legend, does his stuff.

Pork belly, anyone?

There are a few other fine dining restaurants I find intriguing, such as Bin 55, from chef Robbie Nowlin, formerly of The French Laundry, and Sustenio, which apparently has an amazing tasting menu, but for now, those first two are the ones I’m targeting.

But my plans don’t only include eating at restaurants which serve foie gras and use tweezers to garnish their plates. I also love the kinds of places recommended by Adam Richman of Man v. Food. Check out the video below and discover three more spots I plan to visit.

While I won’t be taking the Four Horseman challenge at Chunky’s Burgers, I intend to watch Adam-Troy Castro burst into flames there, and record it for posterity, as I did at Bricks Pizza during Worldcon last year. And I wouldn’t want to miss Lulu’s Bakery and Café or Big Lou’s either.

And then there’s one last restaurant which in my food madness I want to return to. My favorite BBQ joint of all time is Salt Lick, outside of Austin, and when I checked the mileage, I saw it was only an hour and 15 minutes away from the convention hotel.

Road trip anyone?

Those are my Worldcon foodie goals. What are yours?