THE FUTURE IS SURREAL...

...and we're living it. So I was thinking about my Dad, who upped sticks from his native (and neutral) Ireland aged 17 to join the Royal Air Force and fight Nazis. For everyone in his generation (perhaps Russians more than anyone) that war was a defining event. When I was born (a lot later, thanks for asking) and grew old enough to talk, we could have had a speculative conversation about how I might spend Halloween in the year 2006.

What if I'd said this? "Dad, I think I'd be singing in a karaoke bar -- that's a Japanese cultural artefact that's not been invented yet -- with a bunch of editors and a Scottish fantasy writer and German tourists and US-Japanese locals in a Japanese-owned establishment, off Broadway in New York."

Maybe he'd have said: "Son, you been smokin' them rolled-up Philip K. Dick stories, or what?"

Okay, that wasn't his voice. But the future is that surreal.

And Hal Duncan is keeping the outrageous Brit punk tradition alive. Thought you'd like to know.

The Bone Song cover is great; the copy-edited version is in the works and it's all happening.

Fly straight, Pilots, and take good care.