Author Archives: Tim Byrd

Look! Up In The Sky!

An incredible short, hand-animated by Robb Pratt, full of supery goodness. I love it, particularly his take on Lois Lane.

And if you like that, and aren’t familiar with the classic Fleischer Bros. Superman cartoons from the ’40s, check this out:

The Future of Publishing

This video, from DK Publishing, is genius.

It’s essential to watch the whole thing.

Of Forests and Men

There is some spectacular and gorgeous footage of forests in this video. Which is apropos, as it’s about forests.

Yann Arthus-Bertrand was appointed by the United Nations to produce the official film for the International Year of Forests.

Following the success of Home which was seen by 400 million people, the photographer began producing a short 7-minute film on forests made up of aerial images from Home and the Vu du Ciel television programmes.

This film will be shown during a plenary session of the Ninth Session of United Nations Forum on Forests (24 January – 4 February 2011) in New York. It will be available to all from February 2 – for free – so that it can be shown worldwide.

goodplanet.org/​forets

Doc Wilde: “A Rip-Roarin’, Action-Packed, Thrill Ride Of A Book”

 

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I somehow missed a review of my book, Doc Wilde and The Frogs of Doom, by Conan Tigard at Reading Review. Now that it has come to my attention, I’ll share it with you.

The review has a detailed plot summary of the book, therefore is loaded with spoilage. But here’s the pertinent, spoiler-free part:

Doc Wilde and the Frogs of Doom is a rip-roarin’, action-packed, thrill ride of a book that will leave the reader breathless. The book starts out with a bang and never slows down until the last page has been read. This book reads like an old-fashioned dime store novel from the 1940’s. It feels like a old-time thrilling radio show from the era before there was television…

I can only hope that this new author, Tim Byrd, makes an entire series with these characters. Sure, the characters are a little unbelievable with all the cool things they can do, but I loved it anyways… It’s like having multiple versions of a young Indiana Jones in this book.

Overall, Doc Wilde and the Frogs of Doom is an excellent story that will keep a young reader, and even an older one like me, reading this book far past their bedtime. So, grab your flashlight, boys, tell your parents you are going to bed, and stay up all night reading this adventure under your sheets, so your parents cannot see the light. You will love it.

I rated this book a 9 out of 10.

The full review is here, but remember, it’s full of spoilers…

Malaprop 3: The Ironing

(Read Malaprop 1…Read Malaprop 2…)

The time feels right for another installment of my Malaprop series, in which I share some delightful literature I’ve snipped from hither and thither on the net…

Can you spot all the errors? Continue reading →

If You Open Your Mind Too Much, Your Brain Will Fall Out

A great song by Tim Minchin.

Republicans Should Save Health Care In America!

While engaging in some funny smartassery, this guy makes one of the most cogent statements about the Republican side of the health care issue I’ve heard in a while…

“Hey” by The Pixies (Song of the Week, 1/31/11)

A pair of fetching Israeli girls do one of the only homemade music videos (of someone else’s song) I’ve ever seen that’s not only worth watching but pretty darn incredible.

Adventures in Customer Service: AAA

Overall, my experiences with AAA over the years have been very positive. But things seem to be taking a bad turn. Continue reading →

When It Rains, It Pours (Talkin’ Dirty on Facebook) (NSFW)

Oh the things we talk about on Facebook… Continue reading →

MEET MELINE (An Animated Short by Sebastien Laban & Virginie Goyons)

A charming, lovely bit of CGI. I’m particularly taken with the expressiveness of the little girl and the animator’s play with light.

Watch it at its highest resolution.

More Malone

 

Michelle Malone

In a short back n forth with Michelle after I posted my last post, I told her “All blogs need more Malone.”

Realizing I’d spoken (or, typed actually) a great truth, I decided to try to get my own blog up to code.

Watch, revel, then go get some.

Here’s an engaging and funny performance from 2008:

And here she is reunited with her band from back in the day, Drag the River:

And here she performs with the Indigo Girls: Continue reading →

Michelle Malone, Singing to the Heart…

The always wonderful Michelle Malone with a moving new song, “Marlboro Man.”

 

Is This A Ride (A Customer Service Nightmare)

Anyone who has ever had to work in a customer service position will be able to identify with this Disney employee.

At the Disney parks, there are Mickey Mouses hidden all over. Can you find the “hidden Mickeys” in this picture?

Goofy Political Emoticons

Just to amuse myself yesterday, I started coming up with new emoticons.

Here they are. Feel free to add your own in the comments if you like.

‎;i ;i ;i ;i ;i ;i        Blink blink blink…weird smokin’ guy with a twitchy eye

‎:911                    Rudy Giuliani

:2+2=25            Sarah Palin (may also represent Michelle Bachman)

‎:USA<$$$       The GOP

:NOIQ                 Tea Baggers

:C+                       Barack Obama

:F-                         George W. Bush

:666                     Dick Cheney

And my favorite:

:(###################################

A sour face and a lotta pounds?

That’s Rush Limbaugh, of course.

“Jenny” by Flight of the Conchords

While searching for todays’s Song of the Week, I came across this witty gem from Flight of the Conchords.

Ken Hite on DOC WILDE: Tim Byrd has “the keen eye for the plausible impossibility shared by many of the pulp greats”

 

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Kenneth Hite is a smart man.

He’s a writer of various things, particularly in the roleplaying game field. He’s a true polymath, carrying vast stores of knowledge about a vast array of topics around in his brain. He’s one of the few human beings I have ever met who makes me feel kind of dumb.

He’s also a scholar of pulp fiction, particularly the works of H.P. Lovecraft. So it thrills me to share with you his review of my first book, Doc Wilde and The Frogs of Doom, which is of course an homage to both the pulp heroes of the 1930s and ’40s and to H.P. Lovecraft’s unspeakable horror tales. It’s my first review by someone I’m not only sure gets everything I tried to do in the book, but who I suspect gets stuff I don’t even realize is in there.

Here’s a taste; the rest is here.

Despite our young heroes’ impressive abilities, the threat of the Frog God Frogon builds to a genuinely scary level by the end, with a properly Lovecraftian threat to the universe (and to one of Doc’s sidekicks, a burly Irishman named Declan mac Coul) waiting in the depths of a South American cave inhabited by the titular Frogs of Doom. Byrd plays with amphibian biology, and with plenty of other sciences from nanotech to aerodynamics, with the keen eye for the plausible impossibility shared by Dent, Lovecraft, and many of the pulp greats.

I suspect that readers out of middle school will appreciate Byrd’s tribute first and foremost as a tribute — spotting the references and shout-outs is our own little adventure mystery — but it will surprise you by engaging you with its youthful characters as well…the words themselves reel out at pulp speed, and tickle two kinds of nostalgia at once: nostalgia for reading Doc Savage, and for reading Doc Savage for the first time, when you were eleven and hadn’t yet talked yourself into being tired of heroes.

You can get the book here.