Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Happy birthday, John Steinbeck

Cannery Row in Monterey in California is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream. Cannery Row is the gathered and scattered, tin and iron and rust and splintered wood, chipped pavement and weedy lots and junk heaps, sardine canneries of corrugated iron, honky tonks, restaurants and whore houses, and little crowded groceries, and laboratories and flophouses. Its inhabitants are, as the man once said, "whores, pimps, gamblers, and sons of bitches," by which he meant Everybody. Had the man looked through another peephole he might have said, "Saints and angels and martyrs and holy men," and he would have meant the same thing. 

John Steinbeck would have been 111 today. Do yourself a favor and read Cannery Row and its sequel, Sweet Thursday.

Friday, February 22, 2013

Watch this now: "The Big Whobowski"

What would a mash-up of Doctor Who and The Big Lebowski look like?

It would look like this.



The team who put this together includes my best buddy and Constant Reader Brigade member Erik, and many of the interior scenes were filmed at my house.

A job well done, guys!

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

What it's all about

"Drop a stone in the still pool of your character’s life and watch the ripples." - Jeff Gerke

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Nerd alert

My boys went to the Doctor Who con here in L.A. this weekend.



I think the only way they could have looked geekier is if they'd worn Jayne hats with those Tom Servo Dalek shirts.

I've raised a nerd child and I'm very proud of that.

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Passing the book love on

My brother-in-law always gets us books for Christmas - so this year I asked if he would get my son a set of Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain. This five-book series is a perfect introduction to the fantasy genre, or a good lateral move if your kid (like mine) has already gotten his feet wet with Tolkien.

Based heavily off Welsh mythology, the Prydain books are now in a nice new boxed edition. My son has started on the first book, titled The Book of Three, and is loving it so far. I try not to push books I liked as a child onto my kid, seeing as we're different people with different tastes. I do try to gently nudge, though, and this time the nudging paid off.

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Review: Master of the Flying Guillotine

One of those times when the title tells you everything you need to know. My review of Master of the Flying Guillotine is up at Horrorview.

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Customize a pulp magazine cover!

Now THIS is why the internet was invented! The Pulp-o-Mizer lets you create a custom image of a pulp magazine cover. You can enter your own text, and choose from a variety of magazine titles, images, backgrounds, and more.

Here is mine. "Mistress of Smite" is what some friends and (especially) my Constant Readers have nicknamed me - I think they might be a but unhappy with some of the things I've done to my characters.


I think it's nifty! Perhaps I should cosplay that some time...

Go visit the Pulp-o-Mizer now. Guaranteed fun!