If you were a kid in suburbia, then you both perpetrated and fell for The Ol’ Hose Trick at least once. It was a rite of passage.
And it taught you two timeless life lessons:
Can anyone tell me what kind of tree sheds these leaves? I might want to put them in a poem or story.
They’re strange — they’re like the tapered, skeletal frameworks of spades, and they’re as thin as tobacco leaves. They’re also falling in mid-July.
July 2016 Haiku
I’ll run mad if I
hear another word about
fucking Pokemon.
(c) Eric Robert Nolan 2016
How did the culture that gave us Bushido, Haiku and Ota Dokan ALSO give us Pokemon, hentai and those … indescribable game shows?
And nobody go there with the Thomas Jefferson/Donald Trump analogy, because it’s too easy.
America is going through an extremely difficult time right now. I think a lot of us need to take a breath, give one another some space, and try to relax. Why not laugh a little?
Anyway, I only learned just yesterday that Mystery Science Theater 3000 had its own Youtube channel. That’s good to know.
“Mitchell!! Pardon me!! Mitchell!!”
From The Bees Are Dead:
“The Bees Are Dead is officially open for business, and this is your official invitation to submit work for publication. Below are our submission guidelines – these will live permanently on our ‘Submissions‘ page. Please read the information below and get submitting!
The Bees Are Dead (BAD) is a new transatlantic webzine focusing on dystopian and post-apocalyptic prose, poetry, art and photography. BAD accepts submissions on an ongoing basis. We are searching for:
– Poems, with no limit on length within reason…
– Prose, preferably less than 6000 words, though longer pieces will be considered if exceptional.
– Photography, please no nudes…
– Reviews of books, single pieces or films/movies/TV shows – preferably under 1000 words.
– Videos and Audio recordings of poetry, prose or reviews.
http://www.thebeesaredead.com/submissions/
Photo credit: By yumikrum – highwire, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48418789
This is my newest acquisition. It’s Edward Robert Hughes’ “Midsummer Eve,” and it’s a gift from my dear friend Jaine.
I’ve loved Hughes’ piece since I discovered it last year. Now it makes a nice contrast with those modern silkscreen prints created by MWC alum Steve Miller.
If you haven’t been keeping current with “The Bees Are Dead,”then stop over this weekend. It is becoming a unique and dark new corner of the online independent literature community. There is some truly outstanding poetry from several authors. ( I love John C. Zielinski’s “Soft Obsidian,” in particular.) And Amy Quinn’s “Ghent and Portland” has christened the venue with its first published photography.
http://www.thebeesaredead.com/
Photo credit: By Silvision [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons.
I just got finished asking my friends, “Wtf is with the Pokemon crap?” They responded with an explanation about today’s indecipherable craze, but I lost interest halfway through it.
I find Pokemon so irritating that I refuse even to post an image of it in this blog post. (For a little perspective, consider that I actually have posted pictures here of Donald Trump.)
There are adults participating in this … whatever it is.
From now on, I will no longer feel guilty about enjoying comic books or zombie movies at the age of 43.
“The Shallows” (2016) is a pretty good beach-themed horror thriller — it’s just overrated. I’d give it an 8 out of 10, and I’d easily recommend it to somebody looking for a decent, conventional scary movie. But I don’t think it lives up to the hype.
The movie works. The scares are there and, for the most part, they are stylishly and artistically rendered. I jumped a couple of times. My friends keep comparing it with “Jaws” (1975) or “Deep Blue Sea” (1999), but it really has more in common with the “Open Water” films of the early 2000’s. It’s a competently made, slow-burn horror movie with a man-vs.-nature plot setup that could happen in real life.
But I doubt that “The Shallows” truly belongs on anyone’s must-see list, and I don’t plan on watching it twice. The story is a little thin. The movie feels padded with lengthy establishing shots and surfing sequences, and a belabored emotional backstory that feels tacked on. (I think this easily could have been an hour-long film.) The final action sequence is a little cartoonish, too. (C’mon.)
I’m also perplexed by critics’ praise for lead actress Blake Lively’s performance. To me, it seemed really poor. (The exception is her reaction shots — she shined when she was reacting to offscreen threats.)
Anyway, do check it out.
Here’s another Throwback Thursday post that is a relatively obscure, but might be a treat for my fellow HNAM’s (Horror Nerds Approaching Midlife). Who remembers the nationwide syndicated broadcast of 1955’s “Revenge of the Creature” in 3-D in early July 1982?
Your parents had to pick up the 3-D glasses for you from a local Pizza Hut or 7-Eleven, I think … This was a pretty big deal, especially if you were a nine-year-old boy, as I was. My good old Dad got the glasses for me, and he patiently explained to me how depth perception the 3-D technology worked. Good Lord, how I looked forward to this.
And I wasn’t disappointed. I remember the effects being actually pretty damned good. I was thrilled. It was my first 3-D movie. (In fact, it might actually have been the only 3-D movie I’ve ever seen …)
The Neato Coolville website has a far better account of the event than I could write — check it out right here:
http://neatocoolville.blogspot.com/2007/10/1982-television-event-revenge-of.html
The movie itself, in 3-D format, is also on Youtube. I’d love to view it on my laptop, but I don’t have any 3-D glasses handy. I might have to rectify that with my next Amazon purchase.
Eric Robert Nolan, Author 