This is me reciting a very short love poem that I wrote in college. “November, Blue Ridge Mountains, 1992” was first published in 2013 by the International Ware Veterans Poetry Archive.
November compelled us to visit the hills
Where ignorant rock and lofty pine
Were witness to our disregard
For strangeness, temptation and time.
But memories are sticky things.
Will any mountain ever let
Me dream again? Can I now
Feel rain without regret?
I received some nice news a little while ago — Jennifer S. will record my poem, “hens staring upward,” as part of her ongoing Youtube audio series. As I’ve shared here at the blog before, Jenny is a poet herself who lends her voice talents to help other independent writers gain exposure. (She was kind enough this past September to do a very skilled interpretation of my 2013 poem, “The Writer.”) I recommend that you check out her wonderful audio series over at her Youtube channel.
“hens staring upward” was published previously by Peeking Cat Poetry Magazine and Dead Snakes in 2015.
I’m happy today to be able to share The Bees Are Dead’s release of my audio recording of “Operation Staffhound,” by Philippe Atherton-Blenkiron. This truly excellent poem is an excerpt from his 2014 dystopian novel in verse format, “The Pustoy.” (I quite positively reviewed the book both here at the blog and over at Amazon, where it can be purchased — “Operation Staffhound” might be my favorite poem in the complete work.)
“The Pustoy” is a particularly dark science fiction epic that imagines a genocidal dictator, Lev Solokov, ruling a nightmarish future Britain. The brutal “Staffhounds” are his fascist foot-soldiers in the streets.
I had great fun reading the poem. I’m grateful to Philippe for allowing me to interpret it, and to The Bees Are Dead for sharing my recording with its audience:
Philippe Atherton-Blenkiron’s “Operation Staffhound” at The Bees Are Dead
“Black Mirror” seems to me to be the best science fiction show on television; I’d rate Season 2 (2013) a 9 out of 10. (I’m never quite certain whether to group British shows by “season” or by “series,” as they do. I’m also a little uncertain why the fourth and final episode here, “White Christmas,” is included in Season 2, as it aired nearly two years later as a 2014 holiday special.)
I commented to a friend of mine after seeing “White Christmas” the other night that the show was “brave” — it just isn’t afraid to alienate mainstream audiences by being too dark. Not all of “Black Mirror’s” episodes have “twists,” but they typically have an unexpected plot development, and their outcomes and implications are arguably depressing.
It’s just such a damned good show, though, in terms of its writing and acting. My friend told me she wasn’t aware of anyone who had seen it and disliked it.
“White Christmas,” for example, was one of the best hours of science fiction television I’ve ever seen. It consists of three blackly tragic vignettes seamlessly woven withing a wraparound story, and it employs a sci-fi plot device that is mind-bending and brutal. I believe this is the first time I’ve seen its lead actor, Jon Hamm, and I was extremely impressed with his performance.
My only quibbles with the program are extremely minor. As with the first season, I think that not every episode truly requires a 44-minute running length. I thought two episodes (“Be Right Back” and “The Waldo Moment”) seemed like they could have been tightened up into one, maybe with tighter writing allowing for shorter segments.
I’ve noticed another minor relative weakness with “Black Mirror” in general as well — the show does not always present the viewer with likable protagonists. Occasionally, the various characters we’re asked to identify with are either slightly off-putting or even annoying. Again, “Be Right Back” and “The Waldo Moment” spring to mind. This wasn’t enough to greatly affect my enjoyment of the episodes, though.
What an incredible show.
… but he did have a significant mother.
(You people really should be paying me for writing these jokes.)
[THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE FILM.] “Spectre” (2015) was an impressive James Bond film, if not an unforgettable one. I’d rate it an 8 out of 10. It’s got style, terrific action sequences and absolutely gorgeous shooting locations. Daniel Craig is still a decent Bond, too, even if I always find him a little understated in the role. And Dave Bautista makes a sufficiently intimidating henchman. (The man looks gigantic, too.)
It brings little new to the franchise, however, and it doesn’t rise above being a standard action film in the same manner as its predecessor, 2012’s nuanced and surprisingly emotional “Skyfall.” (I’ve gained a greater appreciation for that movie after having watched it a second time.)
It occurs to me, too, that “Spectre” seems a little easy to nitpick — at least to someone who’s enjoyed a lot of spy films and novels that are intended as procedural thrillers. We watch Bond gain easy access to a super-secret meeting of the titular cabal, for instance — he just kinda bluffs his way in. Then the organization’s Big Bad calls him out, after apparently feeling his presence, as Darth Vader felt the presence of Luke on a passing ship in “Return of the Jedi” (1983). Later, we watch Bond employ incredibly risky and haphazard tactics to rescue a kidnap victim — it seems to me that the consequent random vehicle crashes, explosions and gunshots could just as easily kill her as they might free her.
Still, this was a fun movie. I’d recommend it if you’re looking for an enjoyable action flick.
“Bigfoot and Wildboy” (1977 – 1979) is another obscure TV show that is perhaps best forgotten. It was a segment on something called “The Krofft Supershow” in 1977, I think, before the segments were re-edited into a half-hour program. I became a fan of it as second grader in the fall of 1979. (Or maybe I watched its reruns in third grade, in 1980 — to be honest, this was so long ago that I hardly remember.)
They don’t make TV shows like they used to. And that’s a good thing. “Bigfoot and Wildboy” seemed to rely heavily on three ingredients: an utra-cheesy 70’s score; truly terrible special effects (even for the time); and lots of shots of its two title characters either jumping, or running at the camera in slow motion. (I actually just watched a few minutes of the full episode you see posted below.)
I was pretty preoccupied with “Bigfoot and Wildboy” when I was very young. I remember having to make journal entries in the classroom, in which we could write and illustrate anything we wanted. (It was precisely the sort of open-ended journal writing exercise with little academic value to which I’d be subjected, occasionally, throughout my school career — even in my college poetry class.) But we were allowed to select our own topic in the second grade, and that was at least some fun for an imaginative kid. The nuns (it was a Catholic school) sometimes prodded us to write about real-world events; 1979’s Space Shuttle Columbia, for example, was high on their list of suggestions.
Given a blank slate, though, I tended to write almost exclusively about imaginary characters and monsters — peppered, perhaps, with intermittent entries about dogs. I distinctly remember drawing Bigfoot and Wildboy one day. (If memory serves, we wrote and drew in our journals after recess, maybe to get us refocused.) I drew them leaping over a fence and running toward the viewer. (Seriously, the show had a lot of shots like that. Check out the opening credits below.)
I remember a nun looking over my shoulder and inquiring delicately about the giant hairy humanoid and the half-naked boy … when I explained the characters to her, she suggested with (uncharacteristic) patience, “Tomorrow, let’s try to write about something from the real world.”
I’m going along with the crowd today where “Jigsaw” (2017) is concerned; I concur entirely with the other reviews I’ve read. It’s a story fraught with logical problems, but it’s entertaining enough to please fans of the franchise (of whom I am one). Based on my own enjoyment of the movie, I’d rate it an 8 out of 10.
Yes, some of it doesn’t makes sense. And the twists and coincidences seem pretty forced. There was another problem for me, as well — at this point, the writers seem to have run out of ideas for the film series’ trademark moralizing booby traps. (The one involving a grain silo is particularly uninspired, and seems like something out a Bugs Bunny cartoon.)
But what the hell. I’d be lying if I said that this was a movie that didn’t distract and scare me. I think what attracts me to the “Saw” films is not the blood and gore. (Gory horror movies are a dime a dozen.) It’s the character concept behind their brilliant, merciless killer — he’s like a combination of James Moriarty, Rube Goldberg and one of the Inquisitors of old.
Besides, I still like the twists. They may be forced, but they always take me by surprise despite my best efforts to predict them.
And I think every movie is made better by the addition of Callum Keith Rennie. (He’s a shady, grizzled police detective here, though he’s far better than so cliched a role.) I’ve always thought Rennie was terrific — he deserves the lead role in some sort of extremely dark anti-hero film. (Are they remaking 2005’s “Constantine” anytime soon?)
I’m honored to share here that the Vancouver-based Poetry Pacific published three of my poems today in its biannual issue: “This Windy Morning,” “Redbud Leaves,” and “Delaware Sheets.” You can find all three at the link below.
“This Windy Morning” envisions a ghost story for my adopted city of Roanoke, Virginia. “Redbud Leaves” is a very short nature poem I wrote while I lived among the hills of Northern Virginia, and “Delaware Sheets” is a short love poem that wrote a few years back. This third piece was published previously by Every Day Poets, Dead Snakes and UFO Gigolo.
I’m quite grateful to Editor-In-Chief Yuan Changming for selecting my work for publication. The Autumn Issue features outstanding work from 73 poets and three visual artists.
http://poetrypacific.blogspot.com/2017/11/3-poems-by-eric-robert-nolan.html
Salem, Virginia, November 2017.
Eric Robert Nolan, Author 