Line engraving and etching, by the American artist S. Seymour, after the English artist William Russell Birch. Yale University Art Gallery, Mabel Brady Garvan Collection.
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Care to peruse my Youtube channel?
Just a reminder — if you happen to enjoy any of my poetry readings here at the blog, then you can find more over at my Youtube channel. There is a playlist for me reading the work of other poets, and another short playlist for me reading my own work.
I hope that all you guys have had a wonderful weekend!
More old-time radio — 47 hours of science fiction classics
What a find! A poet I admire passed this along to me, and it was too good not to share — 47 hours of science fiction radio classics that Open Culture recently added to its Spotify page. You’ve got to be a Spotify member to hear these, but signing up is free and easy. (Spotify also makes it easy to reset your password if you’ve forgotten it, as I did.)
Right at the top of the list is Orson Welles’ famous/infamous 1938 broadcast of his radio adaptation of H.G. Wells’ “War of the Worlds.” (Yes, this the show that made people believe that martians were actually invading. How’s that for “fake news?”)
Welles’ broadcast was actually the first classic radio I’d ever heard, when I was a kid in the 1980’s. I’d gotten it on a pair of cassette tapes for either Christmas or my birthday, along with an adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart.” If those strike you as weird presents, I was a weird kid.
I loved those tapes — the Poe recording was so good it genuinely scared me. (The narrator really nailed it.) If I happen across that online, I’ll be sure to post it here.
Illustration of Alexandria, Virginia, from the American Anti-Slavery Society, 1836
Detail of a slave ship at the Alexandria, Virginia (then Washington, D.C.) waterfront. From broadside published by the American Anti-Slavery Society. Original caption of the image: “View of a section of Alexandria, with a slave ship receiving her cargo of slaves.”
Lee Hardcastle’s “Thingu” (a parody of John Carpenter’s “The Thing”)
I’ve been meaning to run this on the blog since forever — artist Lee Hardcastle’s brief, brilliant 2012 send-up of John Carpenter’s 1982 masterpiece, “The Thing.” (It is also a claymation parody of the European children’s program, “Pingu.” Please note, however, that the video below is NOT for children.)
Even if the animation method is crude, this is damned creative stuff — in addition to being blackly funny, according to your tastes in humor. This went viral when it was released, and I believe it fully deserves its online fame.
Is it weird if I’d never heard of “Pingu” before this video? I have friends who certainly recall it. Maybe it was just a European thing. Or maybe it’s an example of “The Mandela Effect.” I am very much an 80’s kid, and I swear I cannot remember that “Oregon Trail” computer game either.
Old-time radio horror shows (because I need another nerdy hobby)
So I’ve discovered a fun and easily accessible treatment for insomnia, and it’s also an interesting diversion for a horror fan looking for a change of pace. There are no small number of horror and suspense radio shows from the 1930’s, 40’s and 50’s on Youtube. (They actually do have a significant online fandom.)
The programs are typically 30 to 40 minutes long, and the audio-only stories make you feel like you’re reading a book before bedtime (which for many people is a perfect treatment for sleeplessness).
The horror is a bit mild compared with modern films or TV shows, of course. But it’s still fun hearing what people found spooky before the days of television. It’s even better if the recording contains the original radio ads, which are even weirder than you might expect.
I started one last night that was narrated by the legendary Peter Lorre, and I know that Vincent Price starred in a slew of them.
“Zimmerbild” (a chamber painting), Leopold Zielcke, circa 1825
Berlin, Germany. Early Victorian period.
Ben Crystal reads William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 29
Now this is Sonnet 29 recited properly — it’s Welsh actor Ben Crystal at the 2014 Sonnet Slam in New York. (I am linking here to the Willful Pictures Youtube channel.)
I like Crystal’s conversational style and the way that he appears to address the audience directly. He “speaks” the poem, instead of ostentatiously reciting it it. It reminds me of the performances in The Guardian’s “Shakespeare Solos” series — particularly the readings by Eileen Atkins and David Morrissey.
“Moonlight in Virginia,” George Inness, 1884
Oil on panel.
Throwback Thursday: Marvel Comics’ “The Infinity Gauntlet” (1991)
My buddies and I have “Avengers” fever. We can barely wait to see “Avengers: Infinity War,” which opens tonight, and answer some burning questions. I myself want to know how the relatively humble Captain America can deflect a blow from Thanos’ omnipotence-granting Infinity Gauntlet (as depicted in the trailer). Meanwhile, a pal of mine insists it’s possible that some iteration of the Venom alien symbiote will make an appearance — even though that character is owned separately by Sony Pictures. (I’m inclined to think that this is wishful thinking.)
I was actually around for the 1991 debut of “The Infinity Gauntlet” — the six-issue 1991 crossover series upon which this movie is based. (“The Infinity War” was actually a sequel comic crossover that Marvel released a year later.) An upperclassman upstairs in my sophomore dorm lent it to me, and it pretty much blew my mind. I had only recently discovered that the characters owned by the “big two” comic book companies inhabited shared universes. (DC Comics has released its own universe-wide crossover series at about the same time — “Armageddon 2001,” a series I still love, despite other fans’ contempt for it.) I had read a lot of comic books growing up, but they were usually war comics or horror comics; superheroes had always seemed lame to me when I was a kid.
“The Infinity Gauntlet” was thick stuff, as comics went. The sheer number of characters involved (and an abundance of cosmic characters) made it a little hard to follow for a reader new to Marvel. (DC’s major characters were fewer, more familiar and easier to understand.)
But it was still a load of fun. I still think it’s messed up what Thanos did to poor goddam Wolverine, who’d skillfully gotten the drop on him at first.
Eric Robert Nolan, Author 