This is only 20 seconds long; it consists of just one stanza from Auden’s poem. Despite their brevity, however, I think that these few lines comprise one of the greatest breakup poems ever.
Tag Archives: Eric Robert Nolan
A very short review of the Season 7 premiere of “American Horror Story” (2017)
I finally got around to watching my first episode of “American Horror Story” last night; I started with this season’s critically praised premiere. (People have been enthusiastically recommending this show to me for years, and “Game of Thrones” taught me that the bandwagon isn’t always a bad thing.)
I can’t say that I was overly impressed. Season 7’s opening episode, entitled “Election Night,” consists mostly of heavy-handed political commentary with caricaturized portrayals of both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton supporters. Nearly none of the characters are likable; not even the one played by the terrific Evan Peters. (Yes, comics fans, that’s none other than Quicksilver from the latest “X-Men” movies.)
There is a lot of “scary clown” horror here, as anyone who’s seen any marketing for the show at all should know. Between that and the political elements, I suspect I am not the right audience for this show. I simply find clowns obnoxious instead of scary, and political commentary in horror usually falls flat with me. (I’m the rare horror fan who loves George A. Romero’s work only because it’s scary, without caring much about the social statements he’s supposedly making.)
With all of that said, there actually were a couple of creepy moments late in the game. And there was one (as of yet, minor) character that I liked — the child of the liberal couple who were so devastated by the election results. He’s cute, and any kid who hides parentally forbidden horror comics under his pillow is one of my tribe.
I’d somewhat grudgingly rate this a 5 out of 10.
Anyway … scary clowns are ubiquitous now, and we already have the zombie shows we need. I propose that we bring back … body snatchers. Those can be terrifying in the hands of a talented writer, and they require no special effects. Or, what about vampires? Now that “The Strain” has concluded, how about a well written television excursion into Steve Niles’ “30 Days of Night” universe? Or maybe a “Stakeland” TV show? Looking at you, AMC.
“The Third Temptation,” by W. H. Auden, read by Eric Robert Nolan
Part VIII of W. H. Auden’s “The Quest.”
Cover released for Peeking Cat Poetry Anthology 2017
Peeking Cat Poetry Magazine has released the cover for its annual anthology, as well as its release date — October 15th.
The cover, below, looks terrific. Editor Samantha Rose also announced today that the magazine will be hosting an online book launch on the day of the release. For more information, visit Peeking Cat’s website here.
Johnny Bee Goode
Today is the first day of Autumn. Why not stop over at The Bees Are Dead, and mark the encroaching cold with a few dark futuristic visions?
There you’ll find Gary Glauber’s “After the Deluge”, which is a sanguine twist on the usual narrative of the post-apocalyptic poem. There is also some truly arresting photography — Paul Gerrard’s “Monochromatic Beginnings” is shudder-inducing and delightfully monstrous, and Kathryn Nee’s ““Windows into the End” is a haunting exhibition of abandonment art.
Al Pueblo de México …
El Pueblo de los Estados Unidos le desea paz, seguridad y fortaleza durante esta crisis.
Teotitlán de Valle. Tapestry shop. Photo credit: By Wolfgang Sauber (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons
Throwback Thursday: Nena’s “99 Red Balloons” (1984)
The 80’s were a weird time in a lot of ways. Pop culture’s answer to the threat of global nuclear annihilation was a really cool, really catchy song with an upbeat tempo that topped the charts. (Full disclosure — I don’t know much about music, and I’m not sure I’m using the term “upbeat tempo” correctly. If I’m not, you can totally call me on it.)
Nena released “99 Luftballoons” in 1983 in Germany, it was released a year later in America as “99 Red Balloons.” Wikipedia taught me some interesting trivia this afternoon — the group was actually pretty unhappy with the loose translation of the Americanized lyrics, and all but disowned them. Nena performed the song only in its original German, even when the band was on tour in England.
Maybe we need a catchy pop song to teach the perils of nuclear brinksmanship to the current president. Or, better yet, set something to the tune of one of those Looney Tunes cartoons.
Publication Notice: “Roanoke Summer Midnight” will appear in the Peeking Cat Anthology 2017
I’m so pleased to share here that Peeking Cat Poetry Magazine has selected “Roanoke Summer Midnight” to appear in its 2017 Anthology. I’m always honored to have my poetry selected for the magazine, but seeing my work appear in the annual anthology really is a special distinction.
The anthology will be published in October. I’ll post ordering information here as it develops.
Thank you, Editor Samantha Rose!
Today is shaping up to be a great day!
First, a particularly kind Twitter user in Argentina informed me that she translated one of my flash-fiction stories into Spanish. The title of the story is “I Bring Her Diamonds. My Hands Are Full of Them.” It originally appeared as a 100-word horror story in Microfiction Monday Magazine, and you can read it here.
Then, the talented Robert Hansen shared with me his printing proofs for some of the flash fiction he accepted for the Poems-for-All Project. Poems-for-All crafts matchbook-sized miniature books for poetry and flash fiction, which can be easily distributed to family and friends, or just “scattered like seeds” in true guerrilla poetry fashion. The flash fiction that Mr. Hansen selected include another 100-word horror story, “There in the Bags,” as well as my response to the online “Six-Word Science Story Challenge.”
The artwork that Mr. Hansen is downright terrific, and I can’t wait to share it with you after the miniature books are completed. For more information about Poems-for-All and Mr. Hansen’s unique publishing project, please visit his website here.
A short review of Season 4 of “The Strain”
The fourth and final season of “The Strain” was easily its weakest, but was still fun enough to merit an 8 out of 10.
Season 1 was a unique, detailed, methodically assembled techno-thriller crossbred with vampire mythology — you could tell that it was adapted from a pretty decent book series by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan. The show’s subsequent seasons progressively meandered farther and farther into comic book territory … the fourth felt loosely and hastily plotted, with spotty and confusing exposition. (I was considerably confused until late in the game about who deployed nuclear weapons in the war between vampires and humans, when they did so, and what their strategy was.)
But what the hell. I still enjoyed this. The writers here still know where their bread is buttered, and gave survival-horror fans more of the screwball guilty pleasures they were tuning in for. There was plenty of blood and gore (even if it’s only the white, worm-infested vampire blood that I suspect was easier for the censors to approve). There were more of the show’s creepy, cringe-inducing monster effects. And there was plenty of action — right up until a finale that was predictable but cool. (If you’ve been following the show the way I have, do you not want to see machine guns, explosions, swords and severed vampire heads?)
Richard Sammel consistently outshined everyone in his role as the WWII Nazi turned vampire Himmler. What an extraordinary villain.) It’s a further testament to his talent that the man actually appears sublimely good-natured in real life. (He interacts with his fans from time to time on Facebook.)
The show actually surprised me, too, by how attached I got to its characters. It hasn’t always been a show that is strong on its characters, but … I’m going to miss them. Vasily Fet (Kevin Durand) and “Dutch” (Ruta Gedmintas) were two in particular that I found myself surprisingly attached to — especially considering that Dutch was a superfluous character that seems to have been added only for sex appeal and romantic tension. I was rooting for both of them.
So I’d still recommend “The Strain,” despite Season 4’s failings. To quote Jack Nicholson’s Joker in 1989’s “Batman,” “I don’t know if it’s art, but I like it.” (Yes, I do know that Walt Disney said it first. Whatever.)
