The Women of The Fall Weekender 5 – 6 September Music • Film • Conversation The Women of The Fall Weekender is a two-day celebration bringing together artists who played with The Fall alongside special guest artists from the wider independent music community for a programme of live music, film, conversation and collaboration. Taking place…
Author: Kate Laity
All-Purpose Writer & Arcane Artist
DCA: The Charm Offensive
Glaswegian France-Lise McGurn has filled the Dundee Contemporary Arts with a big, colourful exhibition that hums with energy and an infectious sense of playfulness. It masks slightly the serious explorations of women’s depictions in art and culture, but that’s part of the point. Lure you in, make you think. There’s such a quiet confidence in…
Haunted, Repeatedly: Vernon Sewell
While best known to genre fans for Curse of The Crimson Altar, Vernon Sewell had a persistent interest in hauntings that led him to remake the same play as four different films. The play is L’Angoisse by Celia de Vilyars and Pierre Mills, and seems to have been a late Grand Guignol piece but I’ve…
Bridging the Invisible: Get Your Tix!
Online conference for art, design, magic, and religion. October 15 – 17, 2026 The Department of Art + Art History and The Center for the Study of Ideas and Practices at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, in co-sponsorship with The Center for Advanced Studies – Erlangen, The University of Exeter’s Centre for Magic and Esotericism, Societas Magica, and RENSEP, are pleased to collaboratively host Creative…
Boy Howdy
Vale, Dave Marsh, who has died at 74. One of the founding writers of Creem, my teenage bible, he’s probably best known for getting people to realise the power of Bruce Springsteen but he was also fierce advocate for Patti Smith, which was no small thing in the cock-rock 70s before punk arrived. I took…
On Cats
I know I have neglected the blog of late but I have been preoccupied with my presentation for ISSS; like most works, they are never finished, only abandoned — or in the case of presentations, must be delivered at a specific time so the deadline is very real. That’s to say I think I am…
Bandcamp Friday Bonanza
Bandcamp Friday means direct support for artists. Give these tracks a listen or even buy one or two and support the unemployed! Need more suggestions? Check out my own eclectic collection.
Voilà Brigitte
Thanks to Bertie’s recommendation I have started watching Voilà Brigitte, which comes in wee bite-sized episodes on the ‘tube. They’re perfect for taking breaks from the presentation I’m writing for ISSS later this month — or should I say wrestling into submission (I hope!). The eons that exist between the proposal and the presentation hold…
CFP Divination, Witchcraft & the Occult: PCA Boston 2027
Call for PresentationsDivination, Witchcraft & the Occult *SPECIAL TOPIC*Popular Culture Association National Conference24-7 March 2027, Boston MA The broad interest in divination, witchcraft, and the occult has been part of popular culture for centuries. Scholars’ discomfort with the topic is often palpable: they tend to focus on intersections that feel more legitimate, e.g. legal ramifications…
Hookland Fragments
Re-enchantment is resistance. I think it fortunate (fated?) that my initial order of the Hookland book was returned for ‘unknown’ reasons — at one point there were claims of damage en route, but no substitute was suggested. This allowed me to instead order it from lovely Treadwell’s and receive in addition the much-desired Right to…