Author: Nicholas Diak

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News

Biweekly News Roundup 2023-04-23

Personal / Website News

Mighty prolific last two weeks with articles, podcasts, and other projects. It’s also three consecutive weeks of me publishing an article at this website, and I have another one queued up this Wednesday. Feeling good!

Buzzworthy Book Review

I have a new book review up at my website. I return to the world of Jennifer Croll’s homage cocktails. Previously I did a review of her Art Boozel.

Croll’s newest book, Buzzworthy, was published earlier this month, and holy smokes in a rare instance of me being timely, I had a review of it written up and posted. Not to brag, (but I will), I think one of the things I do when I review cocktail books that other websites don’t do is actually make some of the cocktails inside. Anywho, my review of Buzzworthy is online, check it out and consider plucking up Croll’s newest release.

Claus Larsen Interview

Next up I return to my roots of music journalism! I have not really written about/interview anyone since my Heathen Harvest days, so I thought it would be fun to dip back into penning an article on something industrial.

Claus Larsen’s EBM act, Leæther Strip, recently released a new album and I enjoyed it throughly. I reached out to Larsen to ask if I could ask him some questions about it and he said sure! So, here is my mini-interview with Larsen about his newest album, Last Station.

New H. P. Lovecast Podcast

Happy three year anniversary to the resurrected H. P. Lovecast Podcast! Back in 2020 when the pandemic had really started, Michele and I brought the podcast back and have done quite a bit since: read some good (and bad) works, interviewed lots of cool people.

On this episode we discuss the 1970 AIP adaptation of The Dunwich Horror. Arrow Video did a restored release of the film on Blu-ray this past January and we had hoped to do an episode then, but house stuff and other projects got in the way. So, a little late but here is our episode. It can be steamed at the HP Lovecast Buzzsprout page, via the embedded player below, or through your podcast app of preference.

Ep 57 – The Dunwich Horror (1970 Film) – H. P. Lovecast Podcast

The New Peplum Citations

Princeton University Press recently published the book, Helen of Troy in Hollywood, by Ruby Blondell (a super expert on classics and Helen of Troy canon).

Very flattered to see essays from The New Peplum cited in this tome! Unfortunately I don’t have a copy of the book so I am using preview pages from Google Books to deduce what has been cited. From what I can tell:

  • Steven Sears’ afterword
  • My introduction
  • Haydee Smith’s “Queering the Quest: Neo-peplum and the Neo-femme in Xena: Warrior Princess“
  • Valerie Estelle Frankel’s “Hercules, Xena, and Genre: The Methodology Behind the Mashup”
  • Paul Johnson’s “Adapting to New Spaces: Swords and Planets and the Neo-peplum”

I love to see The New Peplum continued to be cited and used in new scholarship. More information about Helen of Troy in Hollywood can be read at the Princeton University Press’ product page for the book.

Fan2Fan Podcast Appearances

The cool kids at the Fan2Fan Podcast are doing a series of episodes about folk’s favorite theme songs from TV shows.

Michele and I are on an episode talking about ours which can be heard at the Fan2Fan Libsysn, on your podcast app, or via the embedded player below. Sincere thanks to Bernie and Pete for having us on.

Our Favorite TV Theme Songs Michele and Nick – Fan2Fan Podcast

A side note, one of the shows I mention is the theme song to Mission Hill, which is an edited version of Cake’s “Italian Leather Sofa.” It’s one of my favorite cartoons ever and I talk about why on the episode.

But, for fun, here is my autographed copy of the Mission Hill DVD signed by Brian Posehn. I met him at an Emerald City Comic Con way back in the late 2000s.

Emmanuelle / Black Emanuelle CFP

The Call for Papers for Emmanuelle, Black Emanuelle, and Emmanuelle derivative films is open until the end of this month (April 30th).

Emmanuelle the Private Collection Soundtrack.

The CFP can found on this page. If you know other scholars who would be interested in this project, please share! I’d be super appreciative to get the word out.

Publishing Recap

Below is a recap of my publishing endeavors so far in 2023.

Published in February, this collection contains my essay “Dance or Dēcēdere: Gladiator and Industrial Music Sampling.”

Vernon Press Product Page

Scheduled to be published in May, this issue of Weird Talescontains my essay “When the Stars are Right.”

Weird Tales Product Page

Categories
Interview

Down to the Underground: Claus Larsen on Leæther Strip’s Last Station

Claus Larsen’s Leæther Strip is a vanguard music project that has continued to shape the industrial/EBM genre since the genre’s infancy in the 80s. For decades Larsen has seen the genre develop and expand, with him continuing to be a pillar in its evolution with his prolific output of albums, singles, and digital releases. Despite obstacles such as the loss of his husband Kurt and dealing with a worldwide pandemic, Larsen remains a musical tour de force, a powerful train in the underground, and Leæther Strip’s newest album, Last Station, demonstrates this.

Larsen has just concluded a series of American concerts earlier this month before gearing up for a round of German appearances. He has graciously let me ask him a few questions about Last Station during this short period of respite. [Note: Larsen’s answers are in italics]

Personal copy of Last Station, autographed by Larsen.

You just completed a round of concerts in America for your current tour. Hope your visit over here was successful!

Larsen: Yes, and it was amazing, as always. The USA has been very good to me and I try to get over there as much as possible. It’s been seven years since the last big US tour, but because of my late husband’s health, and covid, I haven’t really 
been able to do more than one off’s of festivals. So, getting two weeks of shows on the west coast was amazing, I would have done more on that trip but I have booked shows in Europe to do too. I will be back to do Atlanta, Orlando, Detroit and Newark
 in May/June. Then I hope to get more bookings for the fall. So far this year has been amazing. New album and lots of gigs.

Last Station has eighteen tracks, sixteen original compositions and two remixed songs from prior albums (“Stigma” from 2021’s Back to Industry and “Japanese Bodies” from the Zoth Ommog single way back in 89). The tracks harness the vibes of old school 80s/90s EBM and are incredibly dance-floor friendly. The sound doesn’t veer into aggrotech – there’s no harsh, unintelligible, pitch shifted vocals – but there’s anger (“Hate DNA”), melancholy (“It Cuts Deep”), and maybe a little sarcasm (“Bite My Tongue”). The most standout track is “Flammen und Flüsse” which drops a serious mad hook between verse and chorus. 

Despite the catchy, danceable music, there’s an air of melancholy and finality in the tracks of Last Station, such as in the lyrics of the titular song (“Last station, no exit..”), “It Cuts Deep” (“the pain is endless now, the walls are just to strong for me…”), “Double Edged Sword” (“is this my final call?”), and others. Was this a feeling that naturally emerged while creating Last Station, a coincidence, or something else?



Larsen: Most of the songs on this album was composed after Kurt died, so this was my way of dealing with my grief, and being on my own after twenty-seven years with Kurt by my side. The hardest period of my life, So I just opened the floodgates and 
poured my soul into the songs. I honestly thought that this was it for me.

The tone of the entire album is emotive and evokes lots of imagery. For example, the cover art of the album coupled with the titular song conjures images of riding along in the dark metro, waiting for a stop that never comes. The album is a vessel of different subjects under a cohesive mood. 

Were there any pop culture sources that had an influence on Last Station?

Larsen: During the past few years I’ve been getting back to reading and I think that really inspired me, especially for the mood and sound of the songs, not so much the lyrics.
 [I’ve] been reading a lot of Clive Barker and Stephen King again. Lyrically it was my own personal pain and grief that poured out. I was very much alone during 2020-21 so there was time to listen to my inner voices, someone else’s needs
 were more important than my own for many years and there I was, suddenly having to care for myself. Not an easy thing to do.

Larsen mentioning getting back into reading Baker is quite apropos as the horror master penned “The Midnight Meat Train,” which is certainly compatible with the album’s titular song. 

How was composing and recording Last Station different than other albums in your repertoire?



Larsen: As I always do, I just sit down and see what pops up in my head. I had a lot of time on my hands so I was in the studio all day and most nights. Also, to 
get my mind off things and get that pain and grief out that was destroying me. This is for me, by far, my most therapeutic album I’ve composed. It was either do this or end it all. 
I promised Kurt to go on and focus on my music and playing shows. So ending it was not an option. I keep my promises.

Is there a particular highlight of Last Station that you’re proud of?



Larsen: First of all I’m very proud that I was able to get the album done. I really had my doubts, cause it was very painful to open up for stuff Ive had to suppress for years and years.
 But, we all are so much stronger than we think. For me, this one is my most important album of my career, and I am very proud of the overall production of the album. I never get tired of learning and becoming 
a better producer and mixer.


The biggest thing you want to accomplish with Last Station?


Larsen: I hope it can help others as much as it has helped me making it. It saved my life doing this one. Being creative has saved my ass many many times.

Claus Larsen (Facebook Profile picture).

Touring, running a label, doing fulfillment, maintaining a prolific output of music, all while the effects of the pandemic are felt. How do you do it all?

Larsen: I am doing what I dreamt about doing when I was fourteen years old. It is all I ever wanted to do really, and I will do anything to keep it going.


Despite the title, there’s nothing “last” in the future for Larsen as the prolific musician has even more output on the horizon.

Upcoming news you’d like to share?



Larsen: We – John Mirland and I – got a new album in the works from the synth-pop project Am Tierpark, and also a new album form the punk/metal project Gusten. For release later this year. I am also putting my last touches on the next Leæther Strip album, release date not scheduled yet, but soon. As for gigs, I will play anywhere I am booked. I hope for more shows in the USA, Canada and SouthAmerica, and hopefully Japan and Australia too.

Sincere appreciation to Claus Larsen for his time doing this interview about Last Station. For more information on the album or Larsen’s projects, please see below:

Categories
Cocktails

Literary Libations: Jennifer Croll’s Buzzworthy

With Free the Tipple (2018), Art Boozel (2021), and Dressed to Swill (2022), Jennifer Croll has established herself as the de facto master of the homage cocktail. Diving deep into each subject, Croll susses out each person’s passions, what they stand for, their worldly contributions, what makes them iconic, and distills (pun intended) all their elements into a representative cocktail.

Cover for Buzzworthy.

Continuing in the same vein as Free the Tipple which showcased cocktails inspired by women across a variety of disciplines, Croll’s newest book, Buzzworthy, focuses on fifty female authors, both old guard (such as Jane Austin, Emily Dickinson, Virginia Woolf) and new school (such as Sally Rooney, Amanda Gorman, Rupi Kaur). Buzzworthy doesn’t just focus on literary fiction authors (though they do comprise the majority of the book), but highlights women authors who write poetry, genre fiction, graphic novels, (which is extremely appreciated), and non-fiction. 

Croll uses an introductory approach to not only present authors to readers, but to the art of mixology as well. The beginning of Buzzworthy gives a run down on equipment, ingredients, and measurements, providing all the key instructional components for readers regardless of mixology skill level to consult in order to realize all the cocktails presented in the book.

Each recipe in Buzzworthy contains an ingredient and measurement list, instructions, and also a short biography about each writer along with the rationale behind the recipe. For example, Terese Marie Mailhot’s cocktail is berry-centric, using a berry syrup with strawberries and blueberries for garnish, which corresponds to her memoir’s title, Heart Berries. Her cocktail is actually a mocktail, using Lyre’s American Malt faux-bourbon as its base spirit. Creating a non-alcoholic drink aligns with Mailhot’s biography that mentions her alcoholic father. 

The Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Glass from Strong Water in Anaheim. Photo taken by Michele Brittany.

There’s a total of fifty cocktail recipes to explore in Buzzworthy that run the gamut of simple to complex in difficulty, using a variety of spirits, but also plenty of mocktail and low ABV options as well. An example can be found in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s cocktail which calls for grenadine, lime, lemon, and orange juices, bitters, club soda, and a shot of Campari. This is a fizzy and fresh drink with the bitterness normally found in Campari-forward drinks being greatly subdued. With so little alcohol there’s no burn, making a pleasant, long-sipping experience. 

The Amy Tan. Photo taken by Michele Brittany.

The Amy Tan is another Campari cocktail that takes a hint of inspiration from a daiquiri by using white rum, simple syrup, lime juice, and muddled raspberries. The ruby red colour gives this drink an elegant appearance while its fruity aroma projects a candy smell, like a liquid Jolly Rancher. The white rum (Flor de Cana used for this article) muddled with the raspberries are a perfect combination.

The Shelia Heti. Photo by Michele Brittany.

Aside from the Pisco Sour, there’s not too many pisco-centric cocktails out there, so it is a treat to see Shelia Heti’s homage cocktail that uses pisco, muddled basil, lime juice, and simple syrup. In essence a gin-basil smash, this libation comes through extremely crisp, the basil almost straying into mint territory. Another smooth cocktail with a wine-like aroma notes from the pisco.

Buzzworthy concludes with a reading list suggesting one to a handful of publications of each author along with a one sentence overview and/or synopsis.

The illustrations by Rachelle Baker that correspond to each author and cocktail are fun to look at and perhaps on the chic side. Each author is represented accurately but in a stylized fashion while each cocktail illustration provides an end result for experimenting readers to shoot for. The beginning of Buzzworthy has a piece that features an orange cat with a white blaze that is adorable to look at and it’s a shame the feline didn’t make an appearance at the end of the book to, well, bookend it.

Cropped image of the cheers illustration in Buzzworthy by Rachelle Baker. This piece rules so much.

While the illustrations depicting each author are fantastic in their own right, the best art piece in Buzzworthy is the second cat piece that shows two fashionable ladies toasting with cocktails they just made. This illustration is so fun with a few hidden gems in it, such as the aforementioned orange/white blaze kitty peering at an open copy of Buzzworthy which was no doubt consulted by the two women to make their libations. This piece sums up the entirety of Buzzworthy: creating cocktails, honoring (author) women, and having a fabulous time doing so.

I’ve reviewed Croll’s prior cocktail book, Art Boozel, which can be read here: “Museum Quality Cocktails: Jennifer Croll’s Art Boozel.”

For more information about Buzzworthy check out the links below:

Categories
News

Biweekly News Roundup 2023-04-09

Personal / Website News

March went by fairly quiet and BOOM!, first week of April do I have some epic and awesome news to share.

Weird Tales Issue #367

The big, big, big news is issue 367 of Weird Tales that is slated to be published this May. Yours truly got to contribute an essay to this legendary periodical!

Look at that! My name on the cover with some other titans of horror with a cover by Mike Mignola. Talk about a milestone, I am extremely elated.

My essay is about cosmic horror back in the 1920s and 1930s issues of Weird Tales. The issue is available for pre-order, so check it out at the Weird Tales website.

If you’re interested in some other aspects of Weird Tales, check out my article where I did some mini-interviews with some of the contributors to the sword and sorcery issue, and also my review of the relaunch issue I did for Fanbase Press back in 2019.

I’ll also be conducting mini-interviews for this issue as well.

Cinema Highball Writeup

New cocktail article is posted at my website as well!

As yall know I love diving into the esoteric, weird, forgotten, and sometimes, kinda nasty, cocktails. The PDT Cocktail Book has a recipe for the Cinema Highball which I actually gave a shot on Twitter back in 2021:

However that was made with Bacardi. The real recipe calls for Flor de Cana, and this time I am doing it for realz. Have a read!

New Episode of H.P. Lovecast

We have a new episode of H. P. Lovecast Podcast online!

As conveyed in previous posts, March was a pretty hectic month for Michele and I. We still are settling into the house and we had essays due at the end of the month (for the cats in cinema book) and just a few other obligations that popped up. Because of this, we didn’t get a normal episode of the podcast online, but we did get a Transmissions episode online. In this episode we got to interview weird fiction author Michael Cisco about his new novel, Pest, and one of our academic colleagues, J. Rocky Colavito, about his Giallo-inspired novel, The Night Scavengers. The episode can be streamed at the HP Lovecast Buzzsprout website, via your podcast app, or via the embedded link below.

HPLCP Transmissions – Ep 20 Michael Cisco and J. Rocky Colavito – H. P. Lovecast Podcast

We are hoping to be back on track in April as we will finally get our episode online of the Dean Stockwell Dunwich Horror.

Fan2Fan Appearances

Michele and I have made a few appearances on the Fan2Fan Podcast which have been published in the last two weeks.

First up is the Fan2Fan episode on the classic Larry Cohen film, The Stuff. That episode can be streamed via the Fan2Fan Libsyn page, via your podcast app of preference, or the embedded player below:

The Stuff 1985 – Fan2Fan Podcast

Next, Fan2Fan sometimes does short podcasts on Fridays called “Five Minute Fridays.”

Michele and I appeared on one to talk about what cosmic horror is. That episode can also be streamed via your podcast app of preference, at the Fan2Fan Libsyn, or via the embedded player below.

5 Minutes Friday – What is Cosmic Horror? – Fan2Fan Podcast

As always, sincere thanks to Bernie and Pete of the Fan2Fan crew for having us on their show. We sincerely appreciate them.

Emmanuelle / Black Emanuelle CFP

The Call for Papers for Emmanuelle, Black Emanuelle, and Emmanuelle derivative films is open until the end of this month.

Recent acquisitions to the collection: Emmanuelle in Paradise and Emmanuele (single “L”) 3. Also notice the Silvia Castell vs. the iconic Sylvia Kristel.

The CFP can found on this page. If you know other scholars who would be interested in this project, please share! I’d be super appreciative to get the word out.

Publishing Recap

Below is a recap of my publishing endeavors so far in 2023.

Published in February, this collection contains my essay “Dance or Dēcēdere: Gladiator and Industrial Music Sampling.”

Vernon Press Product Page

Scheduled to be published in May, this issue of Weird Tales contains my essay “When the Stars are Right.”

Weird Tales Product Page

Miscellaneous Tidbits

Sean Woodard Interview

Friend and colleague Sean Woodard has just had his first physical publication, his essay “‘But Illusions Don’t Kill’: An Examination of Giallo Tropes and Gender in Satoshi Kon’s Perfect Blue” in the newly released academic collection Bloodstained Narratives: The Giallo Film in Italy and Abroad.

The Frida Cinema in Santa Ana has an interview with Woodard in which he talked about his essay. I’m flattered that he mentions me!

Categories
Cocktails

Bottling the Theater-Going Experience: The Cinema Highball

The bars and cocktail lounges of New York City ushered in the craft cocktail renaissance in the mid aughts. Many of the vanguard establishments central to this movement have had books published detailing not only their ethos to mixology, but showcasing many of their recipes as well. Death & Co. has their Death & Co: Modern Classic Cocktails (2014), Apotheke has Apotheke: Modern Medicinal Cocktails (2020), Cienfuegos has Cuban Cocktails: 100 Classic and Modern Drinks (2015), and so on. The folks at iconic and influential NYC speakeasy Please Don’t Tell (PDT) have, of course, their own book, The PDT Cocktail Book: The Complete Bartender’s Guide from the Celebrated Speakeasy (2011).

PDT book from my personal collection.

Flipping through the pages one will see a plethora of inventive, intoxicating libations accompanied with pop-art style illustrations.

Corresponding artwork for the Cinema Highball.

However, one might do a double take of the recipe on page 90 for the Cinema Highball: a rum and Coke variant made with movie theater buttered popcorn infused rum.

Cinema Highball recipe.

A cocktail that captures the theater-going experience of grabbing a handful of popcorn, stuffing it all into one’s mouth and then chasing it down with a titanic cup of Coke (Hey! Free refills) all while the previews are still going on? It HAS to be made.

The recipe is fairly simple, with most of the effort going into making the popcorn rum. Per the directions the ingredients are:

  • 1 750 ML bottle of Flor de Caña Silver Dry Rum
  • 1 oz fresh popcorn
  • 1 oz clarified buttered
Popcorn, rum, and ghee.

If the Flor de Caña sounds a little pricy to be used in this fashion go with a Bacardi Silver, that way if the end result isn’t successful a nice bottle of rum wasn’t squandered.

Though this cocktail uses a fairly nice rum, for the popcorn the opposite is needed. Unless a movie theater is super close by and a bag of popcorn can be easily obtained, the best route to go instead is the most unhealthy, syntheticy, buttery, popcorn imaginable. This isn’t a place for organic, artisan popcorn – it’s trying to re-create a movie theater experience afterall. The popcorn used here is from Dollar General and is probably as bottom of the barrel as one can get (note the “gluten free” in air quotes), 

The final component is the ghee. More so than the popcorn, this is what is going to give the rum the movie theater butter popcorn flavour. Smelling ghee is just like smelling the butter squirter at the concession stand. 

Get a glass pitcher and pour the rum into it. Follow this by an ounce of popcorn. The best way to determine an ounce of popcorn is to look at the bag it came in. The popcorn used here comes in an eight-ounce bag, so eye-ball an eighth of the bag. This doesn’t have to be exact though, error on the side of more popcorn. As stated above, the ghee is what is going to provide most of the flavour.

The popcorn is going to get soggy and float to the top. 

Give it a stir once or twice over the next hour. Little globules of synthetic butter will swirl around in the rum. 

Close to an hour grab a sieve. A big one. Put a bowl under it to capture all the rum that will be pressed through.

After an hour a few popcorns will have sunk. There will be a nice “healthy” hue to the rum.

The butter will be concentrated on the top.

Dump the pitcher of popcorn rum into the sieve and use the sieve-stick to press as much rum out from the popcorn. Don’t press too hard though or the popcorn will actually smoosh through the sieve holes.

The popcorn leftover will be highly rum soaked. It’s not really salvageable for anything else and kinda gross if consumed.

Pour the rum through another strainer back into the (cleaned) glass pitcher. The extra strain will grab any small popcorn atoms that made it through the sieve.

Add the ounce of ghee, stir, and let it set for twenty four hours. 

After a day all the ghee will have floated to the top. The rum will have a cloudy, yellow-ish colour.

Pour the pitcher into a glass bowl. The ghee will stay floating and congregate into little, buttery islands. Place into the freezer for four hours which will cause the ghee to harden.

After four hours the ghee will have frozen into manageable clumps that can be easily removed. Strain the rum into a bottle.

Michele Brittany did up a label real quick.

Apply a homemade label.

Highball glass pictured is the Viski Crystal Highball Glass.

Once bottled, the popcorn-infused rum is ready to go!

Grab a high ball glass, add ice cubes, two ounces of rum and four to five ounces of Coke (or Pepsi, RC Cola, etc.) to taste. Use a bar spoon and give it a once or twice stir. Don’t over stir because it will release the carbonation from the soda. 

The end result is, well, a popcorn tasting rum and Coke! It does legit taste like having a sip of soda after eating a handful of popcorn. There is definitely a popcorn odor to the rum which certainly adds a nice component. The popcorn texture is missing, which is part of the filmgoing experience, but can’t be helped. Infusing the rum with popcorn was probably unnecessary and the step could possibly be skipped and instead go straight to infusing with ghee. However, “ghee-infused” rum doesn’t have the same ring to it, so the popcorn has to remain. Actually eating popcorn while drinking a Cinema Highball, now that is a pleasant way to consume this cocktail.

Overall, not bad! The Cinema Highball doesn’t replace a traditional rum and coke and definitely doesn’t replace a Cuba Libre, but it does take minimal effort to make the popcorn infused rum. It would be a nice practice cocktail for mixologist beginners who have not dived into the realm of spirit infusions. The Cinema Highball is a novelty drink, but a fun and tasty one that definitely goes with watching a movie in the comfort of your own home. 

Categories
News

Biweekly News Roundup 2023-03-26

Personal / Website News

Good day everyone! No new content at my website these past two weeks (or, I guess, for the entire month of March for that matter?). And for good reason: deadline for not one, but two essays! First, an essay for a book about cats in cinema was due at the end of the month. Well, I hunkered in this month and got my essay (about the Nemean Lion in sword and sandal cinema, of course) completed and submitted this past weekend. Second, not a looming deadline, but I wanted it done ASAP, I took my Rene Girard/”The Call of Cthulhu” presentation I did at AnnRadCon in 2022, edited it to be in essay format and got that sent off to an editor for an upcoming magazine issue.

So, very cool to get those two gigs off my plate! Cross fingers for acceptances and smooth rewrites! But now, my plate is more cleared off so I can get to those to-dos that have been accumulating.

Fan2Fan Appearance

Both Michele and I have made recent appearances on the Fan2Fan Podcast who just hit 30,000 downloads. Congrats F2F!

First up, hosts Bernie, Pete and guests Josh, Scott, and Michele and I all got together to talk about the classic 90s monster film, The Relic. The episode can be streamed at the Fan2Fan Libsyn page or via the embedded player below

The Relic – Fan2Fan Podcast

Next up Fan2Fan goes back to the prior decade to talk about the cult monster film, C.H.U.D.

That episode can also be streamed at the Fan2Fan Libsyn page or via the embedded player below.

CHUD 1984 – Fan2Fan Podcast

And just for fun, here is my autographed copy of C.H.U.D. signed by producer Andrew Bonime (RIP):

Sincere appreciation for Bernie and Pete for having us on. We always have a blast being on talking pop culture. Check out their archives and give them a follow on Twitter or Facebook.

Emmanuelle / Black Emanuelle CFP

The Call for Papers for Emmanuelle, Black Emanuelle, and Emmanuelle derivative films is open.

The CFP can found on this page. If you know other scholars who would be interested in this project, please share! I’d be super appreciative to get the word out.

Publishing Recap

Below is a recap of my publishing endeavors so far in 2023.

A Hero Will Endure: Essays at the Twentieth Anniversary of Gladiator

Published in February, this collection contains my essay “Dance or Dēcēdere: Gladiator and Industrial Music Sampling.”

Vernon Press Product Page

Miscellaneous Tidbits

CFP – Anti-Fascist Black Metal

Helping proliferate a CFP for Black Metal bands contributing essays to a forthcoming collection on antifascist black metal.

The collection is slated to be published by Red N’ Noir in Greek with a self-published English edition to follow. Submissions or requests for more info can be sent to sbarbalexis@gmail.com.

CFP – Russell Crowe

My editor for A Hero Will Endure has a new CFP that is live: a call for papers on essays about Russell Crowe. More info on the CFP can be found at the UPENN Listing. Abstracts are due July 25th.

Categories
News

Biweekly News Roundup 2023-03-12

Personal / Website News

Writing News

I don’t have much to share along the lines of writing and podcast news for the last two weeks. Don’t get me wrong, I have been extremely busy, it just happens I didn’t get a chance to do an article for my website here. However, a quick run down of things that have happened/currently are happening:

  • Appeared on a handful of Fan2Fan Podcast episodes, taking about monster movies, anime, and TV show themes. Expect those to be published over the next few weeks/months. In the meantime, I encourage folks to check out the Fan2Fan archive, they have some great episodes with some cool people.
  • Turned my Rene Girard/”The Call of Cthulhu” presentation I did at a prior AnnRadCon into essay format and sent it to the new horror-lit magazine, Dark Dead Things. They launch their debut issue this month, check them out!
  • Completed an interview with the authors of the upcoming book Heavy Music Mothers that is slated to be published this May from Rowman & Littlefield. The interview will be published here the week before Mother’s Day.
  • Just interviewed Michael Cisco for the H.P Lovecast Podcast, slated to be released part of our Transmissions programming.
  • Currently working on my peplum cats essay that is due at the end of the month. Wish me luck! (Note: was turned in on 3/26, yay!)
  • Reviewing the book Buzzworthy. I’ve been posting cocktails I’ve made over on Twitter.
  • And, of course, the Emmanuelle CFP (see below). Working on promoting that everywhere I can.

So, lots of cool stuff going on! Also, expect Footage Fiends issue 01 to drop very, very soon! Excited to see that be published.

I also got my contributor’s copy of A Hero Will Endure.

Nice to have the book in my paws. It’s been a long journey!

Emmanuelle / Black Emanuelle CFP

The Call for Papers for Emmanuelle, Black Emanuelle, and Emmanuelle derivative films is open.

The CFP can found on this page. If you know other scholars who would be interested in this project, please share! I’d be super appreciative to get the word out.

Publishing Recap

Starting with this bi-weekly update I will be including a new section called “Publishing Recap” where I will keep a cumulative list of published texts (physical or at other venues) for the year so far. The idea here is to give more visibility to each text and not let them disappear into the website newsfeed.

A Hero Will Endure: Essays at the Twentieth Anniversary of Gladiator

Published in February, this collection contains my essay “Dance or Dēcēdere: Gladiator and Industrial Music Sampling.”

Vernon Press Product Page

Miscellaneous Tidbits

The Night Scavengers

Friend and colleague J. Rocky Colavito has a new fiction book out called The Night Scavengers.

Honored that both Michele and I are mentioned in the front matter!

Colavito’s giallo-influenced novel can be found on Amazon. (Pssst – Colavito also has an essay on WWZ in Horror Literature from Gothic to Post-Modern *wink* *wink* so check that out as well).

CFP for The Princess Bride

Signum University Press has an open CFP (that closes April 1st) on the 50th anniversary of The Princess Bride (both book and movie). Details on the CFP can be read at the downloadable PDF while press submission guidelines can be read at this link.

If you have a pop culture-centric CFP that need proliferation, feel free to share it with me and I’ll post it on my bi-weekly news updates. I’m here to help folks out.

Categories
News

Biweekly News Roundup 2023-02-26

Personal / Website News

New Edge Sword and Sorcery #00

I have a write up/review up about the first (#00) issue of New Edge Sword and Sorcery Magazine. It can be read here.

Of important note, the Kickstarter campaign to fund the next two issues of this magazine ends in five days. Do check it out and consider backing the campaign.

Fan2Fan Appearance

Michele and I recently did an appearance on the Fan2Fan Podcast where co-host Bernie Gonzalez talked to us about H. P. Lovecraft. It was really awesome be asked to be on the podcast and to talk about Lovecraft things outside our own H. P. Lovecast Podcast. The dialogue has been broken up into two episodes.

The first episode can be streamed at the Fan2Fan Libsyn website or via the embedded player below.

Lovecraft 101 – Fan2Fan Podcast

And the second episode can be found here or in the embedded player below.

Lovecraft 102 – Fan2Fan Podcast

Sincere thanks for having us back on as guests, we appreciate it!

A Hero Will Endure Published!

A Hero Will Endure: Essays at the Twentieth Anniversary of Gladiator is officially out! The collection is available for purchase at the Vernon Press website.

This collection contains my essay “Dance or Dēcēdere: Gladiator and Industrial Music Sampling”. When my hardcover copy arrives I’ll be sure to share it.

There are a few essays in the collection that cite content of The New Peplum. As soon as I can verify what and were I will add the citations to the The New Peplum page.

Emmanuelle / Black Emanuelle CFP

The Call for Papers for Emmanuelle, Black Emanuelle, and Emmanuelle derivative films is open.

Personal copy of Emmanuelle vs. Dracula. Note: decades prior Kristel starred in Dracula’s Widow (1988).

The CFP can found on this page. If you know other scholars who would be interested in this project, please share! I’d be super appreciative to get the word out.

Miscellaneous Tidbits

Rest in Peplum Stella Stevens

Ok, Stella Stevens wasn’t in any peplum movies, but she was in an episode of Wonder Woman, and Wonder Woman is a total peplum character and also The Poseidon Adventure (1972) being named after the Olympian, so I am calling it valid.

1960s kitten bombshell Stella Stevens passed away from Alzheimer’s at the age of 84 on the 17th (CNN Link). Stevens is probably best known for being in The Nutty Professor (1963). and the original The Poseidon Adventure. My first exposure to Stevens was in her Bond Girl-esque role opposite Dean Martin in The Silencers (1966).

I had the honor to meet Stevens at a convention back in 2010. She was a total doll and so swoonerific. She autographed my copies of The Silencers, Hard Drive (1994) (a straight to Cinemax erotic thriller) and a cute pinup photo of her. Unfortunately, I am unable to locate the items as of yet during my unpacking, but once I do I’ll post them here.

She will be greatly missed!

Fist of Jesus Blu-ray

A recent acquisition, I got my paws on a Blu-ray of Fist of Jesus:

Only 15 minutes long, I gave it a quick watch. It was funny: Dead Alive with Jesus. I’ll be doing a proper write up later (maybe for Easter?). The movie can be ordered at the Fist of Jesus website.

Categories
Peplum

Straight From the Forge: New Edge Sword and Sorcery Magazine #00

At a functional level, genre labels provide a short hand of attributes and qualities to assist in categorizing a text. By calling a film or a book or any sort of media a “comedy,” or “fantasy,” or “horror” and so on denotes that the text exhibits a large quantity of aspects associated with that label, with the assumption that genres are not absolute and that texts can straddle multiple genres (though some purists may argue for concrete borders on genre definitions). As time progresses and forms of media explore the limits of ur-genre boundaries, the development of subgenre labels come into being to assist in fine tuning categorizations: it’s not just a horror film, it’s a slasher film. 

“New Edge Sword and Sorcery” can be thought of as a subgenre of the sword and sorcery genre, which is turn can be thought of as an offshoot of the fantasy genre. New Edge Sword and Sorcery Magazine acts as the first stake in the ground to lay the foundations of/crystalize the burgeoning subgenre.

What is New Edge Sword and Sorcery (NES&S) and what makes it distinct when compared to sword and sorcery proper? This is the question editor Oliver Brackenbury addresses in the final column of the first (zero) issue of New Edge magazine: a flexible iteration of sword and sorcery that embraces not only marginalized and outsider protagonists, but genre content creators as well (the magazine looks to be more rooted in literary New Edge, but the subgenre philosophy posited by the publication is certainly applicable to NES&S in other forms). 

To illustrate these aspects of the subgenre, New Edge magazine is divided into 50% short fiction and 50% non-fiction that entails interviews, essays, and reviews. The non-fiction half of issue zero of the magazine contains the following: an extremely thoughtful, long-form interview with Milton Davis, one of the leading figures of the sword and soul subgenre; nice, succinct piece from Brian Murphy on the prevalence of the outsider in sword and sorcery fiction; a review on The Obanaax, and essay from Cora Buhlert about C. L. Moore and their S&S protagonist, Jirel of Joiry; and more. The fiction portion contains some great pieces, with “The Ember Inside” by Remco Straten and Angeline B. Adams being particularly stand out with its unique take on storytelling as a concept proper while the opening story, “The Curse of the Horsetail Banner” by Daniel R. A. Quioque offers up illustrative combat sequences with a hero that, against all odds, really overcomes the masses. 


Peppered throughout issue zero of New Edge are a variety of black and white illustrations to accompany the various pieces, giving the whole issue a feel of classic RPG books. 

The first issue (technically zero issue) of New Edge is both informative and fun. Old and new guard fans of the sword and sorcery genre will certainly appreciate the stories within, while the non-fiction pieces are thoughtful with the Davis interview being particularly insightful. The current trend of fantasy genre media seems to be sweeping toward titanic epics in the George R. R. Martin vein, which isn’t an antithesis of new edge per se, it is just a different approach via different modes. Fantasy is en vogue again, and it is the perfect opportunity to showcase that there are different, more inclusive ways to explore the genre, and that is were new edge (the subgenre) comes into play. New Edge (the magazine) acts as a portal for readers to enter the realm of new fantasy stories built upon the pillars of the old. 

More information about New Edge the magazine and the genre can be found at the following links:

Categories
News

Biweekly News Roundup 2023-02-12

Personal / Website News

Death Nell #1 Write Up

New article up here at my website. I take a look at the first issue of Death Nell from Bad Bug, a gothic-comedy-light-horror-erotic comedy comic.

The write up can be read here.

H. P. Lovecast Podcast Episode

The Bram Stoker Preliminary Ballot has been published and like last year on the podcast we are looking to spotlight some of the authors on the list and help get the word of their works out and entice readers to consider their works. Because of this, we are also flipping the order of episodes this month: Transmissions in the first half, normal episode at the end.

For this special episode of Transmissions Michele and I interviewed David Aquilone about Kolchak the Night Stalker: 50th Anniversary and Donna Lynch about Girls from the County.

HPLCP Transmissions – Ep 19 James Aquilone and Donna Lynch – H. P. Lovecast Podcast

The episode can be streamed via our Buzzsprout website, via the embedded player above, or through your podcast app of preference. Give it a listen and consider checking out Aquilone and Lynch’s works.

Scaredy Cats Podcast Appearance

Back in 2021 I had the honor to be a guest on the Scaredy Cats Podcast to talk about the influential slasher film, The Slumber Party Massacre (episode link here).

Host Sherri invited me back on the podcast, along with co-host of the Schitt’s Simply the Best Podcast, Katie, to talk about the 2015 meta-horror-slasher film, The Film Girls. It was a lot of fun to watch the film and then discuss it.

The episode can be streamed at the Scaredy Cats Buzzsprout page here or via your podcast app of preference. Sincere gratitude to Sherri for being asked on.

Emmanuelle / Black Emanuelle CFP

The Call for Papers for Emmanuelle, Black Emanuelle, and Emmanuelle derivative films is open.

Severin DVD (left) vs Full Moon Blu-ray (right) of Emanuelle and the White Slave Trade.

The CFP can found on this page. If you know other scholars who would be interested in this project, please share! I’d be super appreciative to get the word out.

A Hero Will Endure Preorder

A Hero Will Endure: Essays at the Twentieth Anniversary of Gladiatoris available for preorder at the Vernon Press website.

This collection contains my essay “Dance or Dēcēdere: Gladiatorand Industrial Music Sampling” and is slated to be released later this month.

Miscellaneous Tidbits

New Edge Sword and Sorcery Kickstarter

The Kickstarter for New Edge Sword and Sorcery is now live!

The Kickstarter campaign can be found here. The project is currently (evening of 2/12) at 71.77% funded with 19 days left. Consider backing it!

Miss Corsair Debonair YouTube Channel Launch

Pinup/stockings model Miss Corsair Debonair (who I interview for Exotica Moderne issue 14) has launched a YouTube channel (found here).

Her first video (which can be found here or in the embedded player above) has her showcasing a vintage pair of tan RHT stockings. One of her kitties makes a cameo! Check out her video, consider subscribing so you can see her next stockings/nylons/kitties video.