All posts by Eric Robert Nolan

Eric Robert Nolan graduated from Mary Washington College in 1994 with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology. He spent several years a news reporter and editorial writer for the Culpeper Star Exponent in Culpeper, Virginia. His work has also appeared on the front pages of numerous newspapers in Virginia, including The Free Lance – Star and The Daily Progress. Eric entered the field of philanthropy in 1996, as a grant writer for nonprofit healthcare organizations. Eric’s poetry has been featured by Dead Beats Literary Blog, Dagda Publishing, The International War Veterans’ Poetry Archive, and elsewhere. His poetry will also be published by Illumen Magazine in its Spring 2014 issue.
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“An Irish Airman Foresees His Death,” by William Butler Yeats

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“An Irish Airman Foresees his Death”

by William Butler Yeats

I know that I shall meet my fate
Somewhere among the clouds above;
Those that I fight I do not hate,
Those that I guard I do not love;
My country is Kiltartan Cross,
My countrymen Kiltartan’s poor,
No likely end could bring them loss
Or leave them happier than before.
Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,
Nor public men, nor cheering crowds,
A lonely impulse of delight
Drove to this tumult in the clouds;
I balanced all, brought all to mind,
The years to come seemed waste of breath,
A waste of breath the years behind
In balance with this life, this death.

 

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It is W. H. Auden’s birthday today.

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He was born 107 years ago, to be exact.

“He was my noon, my midnight, my talk, my song.  I thought that love would last forever.  I was wrong.”

 

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A short pan of “Contracted” (2013)

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“Contracted” (2013) actually begins with a creative, compelling premise for a zombie-horror movie — what if the zombie contagion began as a sexually transmitted disease, and we viewers followed the horrifying experiences of patient zero at the pandemic’s inception?

Unfortunately, any praise this movie deserves ends there.  It’s poorly written.  I get the sense that writer-director Eric England has only the vaguest ideas about what a primary care physician does or says, or how any medical professional might react to an unidentified contagion.  He also shows us a world in which the local police are evidently responsible for investigating disease outbreaks, and where 20-somethings are sexually attracted to partners who are visibly, violently ill with what looks like some kind of flesh-eating plague.

England’s direction is also lackluster, as is most of the acting.  (An exception is that of lead actress Najarra Townsend.)

This story actually gets interesting when the viewer finally sees its events in tragic context — but that takes places less than two minutes before the credits roll.  (You’ll understand what I mean if you manage to sit through this.)

I’d give “Contracted” a 2 out of 10 for a creative story idea, and I’d recommend you skip it.

 

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My sad, ironic “Daryl Dies” theory for “The Walking Dead”

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[THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE MID-SEASON PREMIERE OF “THE WALKING DEAD,” AS WELL AS THE ORIGINAL COMIC BOOK SERIES.]

Okay, I am almost always wrong in my TV prognostications, but I can’t resist sharing my newest “Walking Dead” fan theory, as it seems like something nobody else has picked up on.

In the (quite outstanding) Season 6 mid-season premiere this past Sunday, Daryl Dixon receives a minor knife wound from one of Negan’s men.  It isn’t a dramatic moment; it occurs off screen.  It also isn’t a plot point, as it affects nothing else that occurs during the episode’s story.

Yet the writers do make an effort to show that it happened.  We see it below his left shoulder, Sasha talks to him about it, and we see him being treated by Denise at the show’s ending.  It seems to have been placed there for a reason.

Well … in the comics, something similar happens to certain minor characters.  After a pitched battle with Negan’s forces, they succumb to the zombie contagion after receiving minor wounds from knives or crossbow bolts.  (Daryl isn’t a character in the comics, but a bad guy wields a crossbow.)  They die, to the surprise of their friends and the doctor treating them.  That’s because Negan has instructed his men to contaminate all of their blunt or bladed weapons with tissue from the zombies.  (It’s a particularly nasty plot development in a pretty brutal comic series.)

Of course, I am nearly always wrong on these things.  And it could just be a red herring — it wasn’t too long ago that we saw Rick nursing a wounded hand throughout an episode or two, leading to fan speculation that he’d been bitten and infected.

 

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Union Station, Washington, D.C., circa 1905 (Photo)

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This is the Grand Lobby, sometime between 1905 and 1910.

I love this photo — it’s one of the coolest I’ve laid hands on via Wikimedia Commons.

I seem to have forgotten how to insert photos into a WordPress post so that viewers can “click to enlarge.”  If any of you guys can advise me on that, I’d be grateful.

 

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Blog Promotion: Porter Girl

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Check out the well-deserved praise for “Secret Diary of a Porter Girl,” one of my favorite blogs on the net!

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Check out “File 770.”

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I discovered something rather nice today — one of my recent “Throwback Thursday” blog posts got a nice mention over at “File 770,” Mike Glyer’s Hugo Award-winning science fiction fan newzine.

The post excerpted was about the offbeat late-1970’s “Planet of the Apes” merchandise I remembered from my early childhood.  It was referenced on January 26th in Mr. Glyer’s regular “Pixel Scroll” feature, which highlights news, opinions and links from science fiction fandom around the web:

http://file770.com/?p=27188

I’m flattered to be mentioned there, as the prestigious File 770 received the Hugo Award for Best Fanzine no fewer than six times, most recently in 2008.  (Mr. Glyer is a three-time Hugo recipient for Best Fan Writer.)

The site is a hell of a lot of fun too — particularly for longtime genre fans who want to take a look at what other fans are reading and viewing.  Check it out today; you won’t be disappointed.

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Union Station, Washington, D.C., 1963 (photo)

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THIS.

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Because my friends have too much time on their hands.

Yes, that is indeed Mr. Bentley from “The Jeffersons.”

 

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A tiny review of “Southbound” (2015)

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I can’t quite muster the same enthusiasm as everyone else for “Southbound” (2015) — I’d give it a 7 out of 10.  Yes, it’s clever how the five interlocking tales of this horror anthology are finally shown to weave together at the end (and it nicely parallels the equally clever movie poster below).

But the tales themselves were sometimes a little difficult to follow, with too little exposition.  One seemed incoherent.  And … exactly what was the role of the woman we see using the pay telephone?

It does have a few things going for it.  The tone is right — it’s a definitely a serious horror anthology for adults, with no camp and no gratuitous gags.

This movie was largely saved for me by the flying baddies to which we are introduced in the first entry.  (I don’t think that’s much of a spoiler, since we see them assailing us in the film’s trailer.)  They’re entirely originally, artfully grotesque, and possibly nightmare inducing.  You know what would have been an amazing movie?  A well-scripted horror-mystery in the same vein as “The Ring” (2002) or “The Grudge” (2004), focusing entirely on these antagonists.   Or maybe a supernatural desert-chase survival-horror movie.  I’d watch that.

 

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