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Post by helrunar on Aug 17, 2023 1:54:42 GMT
Today on my commute I began reading the electronic version of the Ash-Tree Press's excellent edition of Noel Boston's somewhat obscure collection of short stories, Yesterday Knocks, with introductory memoir by the illustrious Rev Lionel Fanthorpe who was a personal friend of Boston's. I may attempt a longer review of the book; here I want to post this helpful link about the history of Bellarmine jars, which figure in the second of the tales in the book: www.beachcombingmagazine.com/blogs/news/bellarmine-jugs-and-witch-bottlesThe history and folklore Boston's stand-in Thomas Rotrod (what a moniker) recounts in the story concerning these objects seems to be based upon a rather fantastical misunderstanding of the purpose of witch bottles, possibly derived from perusing one of Rev Montague Summers' more extravagant embroideries upon his pet topics of diabolical Witchcraft and demonology. Fantasy rather than history, but I enjoyed reading the yarn nevertheless. Hel.
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Post by helrunar on Oct 14, 2023 19:32:17 GMT
Yesterday on my commute I was perusing some of the very short tales in Lord Dunsany's early anthology, Fifty-one Tales (1915). Each story is very short. I thought this one had an amusing moral, of sorts. He never actually spells out the moral, which is refreshing.
THE SPHINX IN THEBES (MASSACHUSETTS)--Lord Dunsany
There was a woman in a steel-built city who had all that money could buy, she had gold and dividends and trains and houses, and she had pets to play with, but she had no sphinx.
So she besought them to bring her a live sphinx; and therefore they went to the menageries, and then to the forests and the desert places, and yet could find no sphinx.
And she would have been content with a little lion but that one was already owned by a woman she knew; so they had to search the world again for a sphinx.
And still there was none.
But they were not men that it is easy to baffle, and at last they found a sphinx in a desert at evening watching a ruined temple whose gods she had eaten hundreds of years ago when her hunger was on her. And they cast chains on her, who was still with an ominous stillness, and took her westwards with them and brought her home.
And so the sphinx came to the steel-built city.
And the woman was very glad that she owned a sphinx: but the sphinx stared long into her eyes one day, and softly asked a riddle of the woman.
And the woman could not answer, and she died.
And the sphinx is silent again and none knows what she will do.
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Post by dem bones on Oct 16, 2023 18:05:24 GMT
Yesterday on my commute I was perusing some of the very short tales in Lord Dunsany's early anthology, Fifty-one Tales (1915). Each story is very short. I thought this one had an amusing moral, of sorts. He never actually spells out the moral, which is refreshing. THE SPHINX IN THEBES (MASSACHUSETTS)--Lord Dunsany There was a woman in a steel-built city who had all that money could buy, she had gold and dividends and trains and houses, and she had pets to play with, but she had no sphinx. So she besought them to bring her a live sphinx; and therefore they went to the menageries, and then to the forests and the desert places, and yet could find no sphinx. And she would have been content with a little lion but that one was already owned by a woman she knew; so they had to search the world again for a sphinx. And still there was none. But they were not men that it is easy to baffle, and at last they found a sphinx in a desert at evening watching a ruined temple whose gods she had eaten hundreds of years ago when her hunger was on her. And they cast chains on her, who was still with an ominous stillness, and took her westwards with them and brought her home. And so the sphinx came to the steel-built city. And the woman was very glad that she owned a sphinx: but the sphinx stared long into her eyes one day, and softly asked a riddle of the woman. And the woman could not answer, and she died. And the sphinx is silent again and none knows what she will do. Sidney Sime The Sketch, January 4 1911
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Post by helrunar on Oct 16, 2023 19:55:09 GMT
Beautiful painting by Sime. Maybe I'll read at least some of the stories in The Book of Wonder. I need to visit the library soon and was planning on checking out one of the Jorkens books. They're not available, it would seem, in the Delphi electronic edition of the collected Dunsany, at least, not here in the US. (I did add the file to my electronic reader, but no Jorkens.)
A nice discovery I made recently is that if I'm reading something in French or German on the reader, there's a lexicon that includes quite a few words in the language. I've been reading a somewhat racy novel by one Tony Mark, L'autre Dracula, which should have been titled That Randy Count Dracula and his gay sex dungeon. It's probably not the best novel but it's quite amusing. One of the idioms I learned from it is that in French, one might say of an individual that "he has other cats to whip" as opposed to "other fish to fry."
Hel.
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Post by helrunar on Nov 1, 2023 3:30:51 GMT
I enjoyed this 1959 radio adaptation of the M. R. James tale "The Tractate Middoth," available through sometime in late November here: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007jxybLow-key but effective. I still wish the 1960s Mystery & Imagination TV episode from this had survived. Hel.
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Post by helrunar on Nov 6, 2023 17:06:26 GMT
Wildlife corner; adorable photos of Alfie the screech owl. Well, this section is described as "seriously off topic" but screech owls occasionally figure in pulp horror yarns. www.carlsafina.org/alfie-mecheers, Hel.
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Post by helrunar on Nov 20, 2023 15:44:04 GMT
BBC Radio are broadcasting a radio adaptation of the iconic folk horror film we hear about endlessly these days, The Wicker Man, starring Brian Blessed (who is a big cat fan so must be a decent bloke). This kind of material is usually available a day or so after broadcast on BBC sounds, for those of us here in the outer darkness of North America, etc. www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/proginfo/2023/49/the-world-of-the-wicker-manHel.
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Post by helrunar on Nov 20, 2023 19:42:52 GMT
More from BBC radio; latest installment in their Lovecraft Investigation series which is more a knock-off/pastiche of X-Files than anything to do with Lovecraft. Nevertheless the latest serial bears the title The Haunter in the Dark. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0gkgh5mHel.
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Post by helrunar on Nov 23, 2023 15:04:44 GMT
Trailer for a made-up slasher film of the 1970s set on the US Thanksgiving holiday. I'm not into this type of film, but this always makes me laugh. www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8bWLrmk3kECredited to Eli Roth but I have no idea if that's an actual slasher movie director. I'm sure there are quite a few in-jokes here. Hel.
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Post by andydecker on Nov 23, 2023 15:36:31 GMT
Credited to Eli Roth but I have no idea if that's an actual slasher movie director. I'm sure there are quite a few in-jokes here. Hel. Roth is the director of the infamous movie Hostel. Rather Torture Porn than Slasher.
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Post by helrunar on Nov 26, 2023 19:10:44 GMT
There's a thread on here somewhere for the 1969-70 series Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased). This past weekend (we've had a holiday here in Yankdom), I've been catching up with the 2000 reboot, which starred a comedy club double act and featured a recurring role for Tom Baker as a blithe spirit attempting to instruct Hopkirk in ghostly fashion and etiquette. It's all quite tongue-in-cheek in the post-postmodern style to which we've become increasingly inured in this 21st century. I enjoy the stories for what they are. The first series finale, "A man of substance," featured a good guest role for Gareth Thomas of Children of the Stones and Blake's 7 fame and a plot involving a mysterious village (again, references to Children of the Stones and Wicker Man). www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZE-ExeJjpQ&list=PLRbqi6Uy5OLx7k9JYImGZVgliBpKEVr97&index=6Hel.
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Post by helrunar on Nov 28, 2023 13:43:39 GMT
New folk horror feature film Lord of Misrule is coming out. The trailer looks promising (but might be triggering for those with small children). Ralph Ineson has a voice and presence here that I find reminiscent of Valentine Dyall. www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGv984fp8QkHel.
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Post by helrunar on Dec 7, 2023 17:54:51 GMT
A "film crews in peril" item is the 2022 film Wolf Manor aka Scream of the Wolf. The trailer looks like good fun provided you can appreciate the special qualities of low budget British horror. It's not Hollywood levels of graphic realism in other words. www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxxPyC0aMW8I haven't seen the film but the trailer provided a few giggles. Evidently, Rula Lenska (who I enjoyed as the High Priestess of Satan, Morgwen of Ravenscar, in a Robin of Sherwood episode) has a cameo role. Hel.
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Post by helrunar on Dec 8, 2023 22:48:01 GMT
In the past couple of days I've been rewatching some episodes of The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes, in the wake of two vaccination shots that left me feverish and bedridden for about 30 hours. This morning I watched "The Woman with the Big Hat' which is an adaptation of a chapter from Baroness Orczy's book Lady Molly of Scotland Yard. Elvi Hale was great fun in the title role, and Ann Beach was pretty as a picture as her adoring amanuensis Mary Grandard. Maybe the next time I try to load an electronic edition of this book onto my reader, the file will not be the corrupted failure that refused to open at all a few years back.
Roy Dotrice as Guy Boothby's Simon Carne in "The Duchess of Wiltshire's Diamonds" is fascinating to watch, surrounded by a cast of very believably posh nobs as Carne's victims.
"The Missing Q.C.s" from a story by John Oxenham (William Arthur Dunkerley) is one of the episodes that veers into seeming parody at a few points, particularly in the fact that everyone describes the titular missing lawyers as "men of genius" when both appear to be dithering adolescents in elderly bodies, likely to indulge in food fights whenever Nanny leaves the room. Jack May who had a fabulous voices appears as one of the lawyers.
I think there are a few younger Britons who enjoy this kind of thing--I think there was a thread about the series being rerun on Talking Pictures or one of the other channels a year or so ago.
Hel.
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Post by helrunar on Dec 31, 2023 17:22:21 GMT
For those who enjoy early music, this edit of various clips of the late David Munrow (died 1976) performing with his friends has some fascinating pieces to enjoy for New Year's Eve revelry. Around the 24 minute mark, he even performs a couple of traditional Chinese tunes. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi5m54NXhYEHel.
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