Radio Free Albemuth Takes It To The Dick-Heads With Kickstarter

Director John Alan Simon and producer Elizabeth Karr have set up a Kickstarter with the goal of bringing their vision of Radio Free Albemuth to theaters in at least ten American cities. They've set the fundraising goal at $85,000 by July 3. There are lots of unique deals including a package featuring a guided tour of PKD sights in Berkeley, California, by yours truly. The project already has 100 backers.

Head on over to Kickstarter to have a look.

If you're in the New York area be sure to see RFA at Lincoln Center on June 4.

Estate Settles Adjustment Bureau Lawsuit

 In legal news, there was a settlement in the dueling lawsuits concerning Adjustment Bureau. There is very little news as the settlement is secret. You'll remember the estate said the producers owed the estate money, but then the producers discovered that the short story, Adjustment Team, was, in fact, in the public domain. There were all sorts of complicating factors like international (rather than domestic) copyright law and all that jazz. Bottom line: Perhaps the Adjustment Bureau TV show is back on...

Read about the settlement here.

RFA to Screen at Lincoln Center Film Society

In news from the Movie Roll Out That Never Ended, Radio Free Albemuth, Director John Alan Simon's indie take on PKD is being shown at a prestigious film festival at the exalted Lincoln Center in NYC on June 4.

Here's John Alan Simon on the latest development: "I'm really excited to screen RFA at Lincoln Center in NYC.  It's a great honor to be selected for their prestigious indie series.  We hope the success of this one-night only event will be the kick-off for our theatrical launch in the fall.   We're counting on the help of PKD fans to spread the word to  friends in New York to make this the same kind of sell-out, standing room only success as we had at the Philip K. Dick Film Festival Event in December.   Plus I look forward to talking about all matters PKD to all the real PKD readers out there.   Thanks to David Gill and all the other other PKD fans and scholars out there for helping us get this indie labor of love out there!  Like the Aramchek conspiracy, we've put up a great fight against the forces o darkness - now there appears a wondrous ray of pink light at the end of this long tunnel."

I know from your comments that many of you just want to see this film, and you don't particularly care if you watch it in a theater or streaming on Netflix. I get that. But, need I remind you, Hollywood is an evil, soul-crushing place which, in the past, has committed great crimes against our sainted SF writer: Next, Paycheck, Adjustment Bureau. Surely you can wait a little longer to see an adaptation unsullied by either Tom Cruise or tacked on car chases. And if you can't, well don't be mad at RFA's makers, instead be angry at the heap of tepid garbage Hollywood prefers to fund (and ruin).

Here's a write up and a link to buy tickets.

What's New with Pravic Magazine

For those of you who don't know, I now divide my efforts between Dickiana and writing my own science fiction. To that end, I've begun Pravic Magazine with fellow Dick-head Nathaniel K Miller. We've just put out issue two and it's got stories by Rudy Rucker (!), Robert Onopa, longtime Dick-head litserv manager Cal Godot, and yours truly.
You can order a print copy here.
You can order a digital copy here.
You can subscribe (print or digital) here. 
You can buy your one of a kind Pravic t-shirt here.

It looks like this!
I really appreciate your support!! 

Erik Davis Exegizes the Exegesis on Aeon Byte Radio

You read that right, Dick-heads, TDH-pal and annotations editor of The Exegesis of Philip K Dick, Erik Davis, talks up the project with Miguel Connor of Aeon Byte Radio. Check it out here.

btw, my fav review over at amazon - the only one-star review - reads as follows:

"Having nonetities pygmify the Exegesis is not just sacriligeous, it is a clear attempt to censor and sanitise PKD into another crazy visionary pigeonhole, making his commercially lucrative legacy easier to exploit whilst de-emphasizing what was most important to him- namely his VALIS experiences. Not everything can be abridged, least of all by dollar-fixated pygmies and nabob academics."

PKD Otaku 27 Out Now!

Yet another issue of PKT Otaku has emerged, fully formed, from the forehead of Patrick Clark and his band of renegade Dick fans. Inside you'll find some interesting stuff on Dick's ancestry, international academic research centered on PKD, a review of The Man Who Japed, and a look at Dick's weaponry from Lord Running Clam. Download the .pdf here, and enjoy the best semi-regular Dick content around.

Paul Williams 1948-2013

Sad news, everyone. PKD's friend and former executor Paul Williams died last night after a long battle with early-onset dementia. According to Paul's wife (and dedicated saint) Cindy Lee Berryhill, "Rock-writer Paul S Williams, author and creator of CRAWDADDY magazine, (and my husband), passed away last night 10:30pm PST while his oldest son was holding his hand and by his side. It was a gentle and peaceful passing." 

Paul's contributions to Dick's career were the stuff of legends, and in addition to writing a feature on PKD for Rolling Stone Magazine, he also helmed the Philip K Dick Newsletter for a number of years with an embryonic Jonathan Lethem. 

I use an essay of Paul's in my freshmen composition class. It's about The Beatles song "The Things We Said Today" and it is has some of the best topic sentences I've ever read. 

Update: you can read that essay (Part of Williams' book The 20th Century's Greatest Hits) here - hopefully.