Blog Archives
Adieu Ellison
Harlan Ellison was a firebrand author of New Wave speculative fiction who wrote everything from sci-fi to fantasy, short stories, novels, television shows, film criticism and much more. Ellison’s “The City on the Edge of Forever” is widely-recognized as the best episode in the original Star Trek series and his Outer Limits episode, “Soldier,” was [...]
An April Season In Hell
Celebrating National Poetry Month, here’s a rad radio production of Arthur Rimbaud’s A Season in Hell which was published 145 years ago this year. Even though it might not be immediately evident Arthur Rimbaud had a lot in common with William Blake: both saw the benefits of altered states on literary vision and both were [...]
Video Killed The Bard
Came across this lollipop culture candy the other day and wanted to share here. I hope the new year is as absurd and unexpected as this. Here’s the set-up from Open Culture… When it comes to music however, 80s retro tends to confine themselves to early hip and hop and electro, the synthpop of Gary [...]
DJ Dick
As someone who spends a lot of time writing I can often be found at my desk at home or at the library or in a corner of a coffeehouse typing away with my headphones on. Here’s a little secret: I’m almost never listening to anything. If I’m reviewing a film or working on my [...]
Mishima Mystery
Yukio Mishima died on November 25, 1970. We’re nearly two weeks away from the anniversary of the author’s passing, but today I was reminded of the great episode about Mishima in the BBC art series Arena. I’ve been reading Mishima since my early twenties. Confessions of a Mask was the first novel I read — [...]
Creepiest Comics
Well it’s almost Halloween and I’m planning to keep the blog spooked-out right through the eerie evening. I’ve been posting a lot about horror films, but of course books are also good for a great scare, and comics provide both the deep reading of a words-on-the-page experience with the king of lurid visuals that we [...]
Dick’s Debut
65 years ago, in 1952, Philip K. Dick published his very first short story, “Roog,” in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. In the year 2017 we’re only a few weeks from the premiere of the Blade Runner sequel, and our actual world seems more and more Phildickian every single day. Read more about [...]
Jaynes Says
The Guardian recently posted their “Top Ten books about consciousness” list. Before I read the article I thought up this personal, spontaneous list of my own. In no particular order… Siddhartha Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Hagakure Sun and Steel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Jonathan Livingston Seagull The [...]
Stephen’s Suffering Screens
Now that the new IT film has become a huge hit I thought I’d follow-up on my post about the movie last week. I’m not surprised that the film has done as well as it has, and I’m also not surprised to hear that the movie’s success has lead to another King property getting snatched-up [...]
King’s IT
I saw a preview of the new screen version of Stephen King’s IT tonight. I’d have to think about it a little more to write a full review as I just got home and I need to stop working for the night and watch some hurricane news which has been really scary. Hurricane Irma is [...]
