Hobo Camp Review issue 50 is out, reminding us that in the midst of all the horrors we must create and play and communicate. Even editor James Duncan’s editorial for this issue reminds us. I’m pleased to be in this issue along with a bunch of names I recognise. I have a little story ‘The…
Tag: spook racket
Review: Trance by Appointment – Gertrude Trevelyan
TRANCE BY APPOINTMENT Gertrude Trevelyan Boilerhouse Press Trance by Appointment is the story of Jean, an otherwise ordinary working-class London girl. But Jean has what her mother calls “the Sight.” She sees what no one else can: the future. At first, under the patient guidance of Madame Eva, she learns to control this talent and begins…
Irreverent Tarot 6
‘Sir, you quibble!’ Today’s quick take is on THE SQUARE OF SEVENS, a cartomancy guide from 1896 by Edward Irenaeus Prime-Stevenson (1868-1942). He declares it to be the work of Robert Antrobus, who met a ‘Mr George’ in Cornwall who was supposedly a ‘gypsy’ but alienated from his people and willing to spill all their…
Surreal Noir: Ep16 New Fiction!
Episode Sixteen is now live! New fiction to celebrate #Noirvember and go out with a bang. Or maybe just a hum (you’ll have to listen to the story to figure that one out). Les grands transparents was inspired by a concept of André Breton’s. There are little nods that the cognoscenti will pick up on…
Conjuring the Spirit World #Salem
A quick jaunt to Salem to meet up with art partner in crime QoE AKA Stephanie just so we could see this exhibit: Conjuring the Spirit World: Art, Magic and Mediums. It was so much fun and if you have a chance to go, be sure to do so! We loved it and got so…
Saturday Matinee: The Night Has a Thousand Eyes (1948)
The Night Has a Thousand Eyes Francis William Bourdillon (b. 1852) THE NIGHT has a thousand eyes, And the day but one; Yet the light of the bright world dies With the dying sun. The mind has a thousand eyes, And the heart but one; Yet the light of a whole life dies When love…
Spook Racket: Psychic Mafia
Oddly enough in the seemingly endless line of grifters and con artists in and around the spook racket, I had not read this volume. I first ran across the BBC radio series on it — part of their ongoing fascination with grifters like Anna Delvey. Lamar tells his story (with Spraggett’s help) with relish, albeit…
Saturday Matinee: The Clairvoyant (1935)
Apropos for Derby Day (no, the other one, my American friends) I can recommend the early Gainsborough film starring Claude Rains, Fay Wray and Jane Baxter. Rains and Baxter are music hall performers with a mind reader act very familiar to Nightmare Alley fans. It’s a family tradition and they seem happy on the circuit…
Film Noir Friday: Fallen Angel (1945)
FALLEN ANGEL (1945) Dir Otto Preminger Attempting to capture the magic of Laura the year before, Preminger got Dana Andrews back into a fedora and Joseph LaShelle lensing but no Gene Tierney, alas. Instead we have a ripe Linda Darnell as the bad girl Stella (she shines at night of course) and Alice Faye as…
Got Gothic? Turney’s The Other One (1952)
The Dell paper back edition: ‘Black magic — and a modern sorceress!’ That ghastly green: I love it. Last week’s film Back from the Dead was based on this mid-century Gothic thriller and scripted by the author, who certainly streamlined the narrative — perhaps a little too much. By coincidence (or due to us both…