Mold, Moss, and Fungus

I am always grateful when Carol Borden of The Cultural Gutter tells me I should check something out. She knows my tastes pretty well and when she said I had to see Rabbit Trap, I knew I would need to do so (see her write up at the link). It hits a lot of my…

Reading into the New Year

I’ve been doing a lot of reading since I got here before Xmas and I wanted to try to keep track of as much as I can. A few books were waiting for me: some because shipping to the US was too much especially for contributor’s copies (why punish the publishers?). So very happily reading…

Fur Baby: Live

Premiere! Let’s celebrate Devil’s Night with a devilish little tale of uncanny fear in this season of spookiness and — let’s face it — completely mad conspiracy theories. Consider it a short refuge from the horrors of reality. Fictional horrors end. Live from 2nd Sunday at 2 in Troy: thanks as always to Nancy and…

Glasgow 2024 AKA WorldCon

My schedule includes two academic presentations because I bent the rules slightly to talk about Strange & Norrell (not just an excuse to show Charles Vess’ glorious illustrations!) and a bit about Scots literary history as there is a special track for that. My topics: SCOTLAND’S FIRST FLIGHT: 1507 In 1507 alchemist John Damian flew…

Murrain (1975)

By the by: if you’re on Letterboxd, let’s connect: I’m here. Sometimes you just need a nudge to get something done. Andy Miller tweeted that he wrote about the challenge of ‘getting back to normal’ for the NYT and about heading to London to celebrate Kneale’s centenary. He’s come to same conclusion as many: ‘normal’…

Only The Stones Remain

Before I was laid low with fever and dreams, I watched a couple of folk horror classics that I had often heard about but never watched. Being well-versed in 70s American television horror I remain sadly deficient in the British counterpart, though I have made great strides since the whole folk horror boom arose (mostly…

Surreal Noir: 17 May 22

Tonight, it’s SURREAL NOIR at NoBounds Radio. Episode Ten: Last episode was so talky I decided to double the listening pleasure this time around. Deep Listening from the 21st century back to the 14th—immersive sound to stop time and feed your ears! Musical selections include: Pauline Oliveros: Big Slow Bog (Mills Tape Center 1966-7) —…

Surreal Noir: 19 Apr 22

Tonight, it’s SURREAL NOIR at NoBounds Radio. Episode Nine: My text for this episode is Leonora Carrington’s ‘My Mother is a Cow’ which you can find in the collected stories. It features surrealism, ritual, goddesses, sacrifice, skin, magic, and a bit of Graves’ The White Goddess. If this sounds familiar, it’s adapted from the talk…

PCA/ACA in April

The Easter Bunny usually brings a good egg: the PCAACA conference. Virtual again this year for safety’s sake, many of the usual crowd are gathering to bring you great discussions about the popular culture you love. Here’s my schedule including the much-anticipated round table with pals: I’m still digesting Archive 81 and need to check…

Surreal Noir: 22 Mar 22

Tonight, it’s SURREAL NOIR at NoBounds Radio. Episode Eight: It’s Women’s History Month, so a variety of things including adaptations of Patricia Highsmith’s Deep Water (no, I haven’t seen the brand new one yet but I did hear someone refer to it as Gone Girl 2.0 which is encouraging. All texts mentioned: Leave Her to…