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thatcrazycajunYou know him, you either love him or loathe him: there is no middle ground for most. Yeah, you know who I mean...the guy who used to be called the enfant terrible of science fiction until he got too old for the title; the author of both award-winning fiction and scalding essays on society and media (and the occasional—okay, frequent—in-person public rant); the man who gave us "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman and I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream; helped give us some of the best parts of Star Trek and Babylon 5; and provided decades of real-life entertainment watching him scandalize half of fandom with his behavior and inspire the other half by going all Don Quixote on some of the biggest, nastiest windmills around. Yep, the one and only (thank all the gods that ever were or will be; I am not at all sure the Universe could stand two of him!) Harlan Ellison.
Now a company called (how utterly, wonderfully apropos for this subject!) Creative Differences has produced a documentary film about the man, his life and his work called Dreams with Sharp Teeth. Robin Williams, Neil Gaiman and other luminaries in and out of our favorite genre appear in the film talking to and commenting on Harlan, as does Harlan himself, overflowing as usual with piss and vinegar from both present-day scenes and excerpts from previous filmed and taped interviews over the course of over a half century's toil in literature, film and television writing.
I don't have that much more to say about Harlan that I didn't already say in this rather long LJ entry from nearly three years ago, so I'll only add that the film even features an original song about him from someone calling himself The Jazz Butcher. You can listen to it on the website, streaming for free; it seems to me well qualified as "found filk," depending on whether or not the songwriter is actually a fan in the sense filkers usually mean. The film's premiere was held in 2007, and a video of said premiere is on the homepage, but no indication is readily apparent as to whether the film itself is now available for purchase or viewing. My suggestion? Google and Amazon searches, which I'll be doing; I wanna see this thing...and I strongly suspect my Songbird, also an Ellison fan, will want to as well. It spares no dirt, pulls no punches and leaves no doubt about its subject...kind of like Harlan.
Now a company called (how utterly, wonderfully apropos for this subject!) Creative Differences has produced a documentary film about the man, his life and his work called Dreams with Sharp Teeth. Robin Williams, Neil Gaiman and other luminaries in and out of our favorite genre appear in the film talking to and commenting on Harlan, as does Harlan himself, overflowing as usual with piss and vinegar from both present-day scenes and excerpts from previous filmed and taped interviews over the course of over a half century's toil in literature, film and television writing.
I don't have that much more to say about Harlan that I didn't already say in this rather long LJ entry from nearly three years ago, so I'll only add that the film even features an original song about him from someone calling himself The Jazz Butcher. You can listen to it on the website, streaming for free; it seems to me well qualified as "found filk," depending on whether or not the songwriter is actually a fan in the sense filkers usually mean. The film's premiere was held in 2007, and a video of said premiere is on the homepage, but no indication is readily apparent as to whether the film itself is now available for purchase or viewing. My suggestion? Google and Amazon searches, which I'll be doing; I wanna see this thing...and I strongly suspect my Songbird, also an Ellison fan, will want to as well. It spares no dirt, pulls no punches and leaves no doubt about its subject...kind of like Harlan.
