It has been a while so it is time to dive back into my bread and butter, the world of the neo-peplum, so here is a brand new review online.
I’m fairly timely with this review as Rome Eternal came out in November, and I have issue #2 (which came out in January) in my paws as well. Should I aim to do back to back reviews?
Anywho, Rome Eternal is a neo-peplum comic about an Ancient Rome that did not fall but instead became a huge superpower that is just as corrupt and nasty as it has ever been. Just this time they have laser spears.
Sincerely chuffed that editor Naomi Simone Borwein mentions Michele and I in her acknowledgments in her upcoming edited academic collection, Global Indigenous Horror, from University Press of Mississippi.
We had the honour of having Dr. Borwein present at a past Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference and to have her presentation published in Horror Literature from Gothic to Post-Modern.
I’ve shared prior, but want to re-iterate how awesome the cover art for Global Indigenous Horror is:
Global Indigenous Horror is slated to be published April 15th and can be pre-ordered at the UPoM website.
Scholars from the Edge of Time: Gentlemen Broncos
First episode of Scholars from the Edge of Time of 2025 is now online!
Back in 2024 Michele and I watched Krull and loved it (that episode can be viewed here). The cyclops in Krull made me recall that Gentlemen Broncos has homages to the iconic one-eyed character, so we decided to give that film a shot! The vidcast episode can be watched on YouTube, check it out!
ECOF 2025
In September of 2025 there will be an Edgar Rice Burroughs Chain of Friendship (ECOF) event down in Willcox, AZ. This event is to celebrate the 150th birthday of Burroughs while also honoring him with a plaque in the town due to his stationing with there the 7th U.S. Calvary in the 1890s. (Note: another ERB convention was held in Willcox back in 2019 and an event recap of that can be read at ERBZine #7059).
Here is a flyer for the 2025 event:
I’ll share more information about the event as I find out more on my website updates. Michele and I will be in attendance for this convention, so I’ve added it to the appearances section of my website as well.
Publishing Recap
Below is a recap of my external publishing endeavors so far in 2025.
Comic Book Review: “The Moon Maid: Catacombs of the Moon #2″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #332.
Comic Book Review: “The Moon Maid: Catacombs of the Moon #3″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #333.
“There’s Always Room” in Merry Creepsmas: The Red Book. Edited by Parth Sarathi Chakraborty. Wicked Shadow Press, 2025.
“Tagliolini al Tarzan: Interview with Actress Bella Cortez on Taur the Mighty” in The Burroughs Bulletin #109. Edited by Henry Franke III. February, 2025.
Calls for Papers/Proposals
Here are some new pop culture CFPs that have crossed my path. Links to these will also be in the CFP page on the navigation bar.
Selling Scary Movies: Horror Film Promotion & the American Market
While American horror cinema is among the most widely examined of all entertainment formats, scholarship on this topic has mainly focused on film content or its reception. Consequently, despite representing a profuse component of horror’s inter-textual replay, the marketing of such films remains under-theorized and supported by a relative paucity of case-studies. Indeed, the promotion of scary movies still tends to be imagined rather reductively as a nightmarish mix of terror, loathing, threat, violence, and monstrosity, exemplified by such oft-quoted taglines as “be afraid, be very afraid” and “keep repeating it’s only a movie!”. This collection of essays therefore proposes to broaden conceptions of how chillers, thrillers, and the like have been promoted on the US market. It shall do so by uniting diverse approaches focusing on the industrial, social, discursive, and aesthetic dimensions of horror film marketing across a range of industry sectors, windows of release, and time periods. In so doing, the collection aims to expand and clarify the terms under which we understand one of the most pervasive yet poorly appreciated aspects of American audiovisual culture.
Accordingly, the editor of this collection therefore solicits original essays of 6000-8000-words offering a variety of perspectives on topics including but not restricted to:
Marketing campaigns of individual horror films
Repacking horror films across windows of release
Marketing campaigns across horror film trends and sub-types
Horror film and print advertising
Horror film and audiovisual advertising
Horror film and radio advertising
Horror film and viral advertising
Horror films and synergy
Horror films and publicity tours
Exploitation sector marketing
Indie/Art horror marketing
Marketing extreme or niche horror
Hollywood horror marketing
Targeting horror at specific audiences
Promoting imported horror on the American market
Horror in the marketing of non-horror films
Non-horror in the marketing of horror films
Please send 200-word abstracts plus a short academic bio – or any questions and queries – to richardandrew.nowell@amu.cz
Abstract due date (31 May 2025), chapter submissions (circa. January-May 2027).
Miscellaneous Tidbits
Some fun things and shout outs from these past few weeks.
New Acquisitions
Gladiator 2
Gladiator 2 was release in theaters back in November 2024 and Michele and I got to see it on the big screen in December. I started a draft of a write up of the film, got 80% done, but decided to shelve it for when the Blu-ray comes out so I could re-watch it.
And now, the movie is out on physical media! I got my pre-order the other week, so expect an upcoming Peplum Ponderings about the film, but also a Scholars from the Edge of Time episode devoted to it.
Helen of Troy
A recent pick up for an old film, here is Helen of Troy (Robert Wise, 1956).
I have not seen this one yet, but this will be a great watch in tandem with Ruby Blondell’s Helen of Troy in Hollywood.
Autographed Treasures
Lots of cool autographed treasures I’ve shared on Bluesky these past few weeks.
Rodan/War of the Gargantuas
I love kaiju films, but I am far from an expert on all the Toho and Toei monster films out there. Don’t laugh, but one of my favorite Godzilla films is All Monsters Attack (1969, Ishiro Honda).
I have quite a Godzilla film collection, but I have only one autographed kaiju film, and that is War of the Gargantuas (1966, Ishiro Honda) by Russ Tamblyn. There was a West Side Story anniversary Hollywood Collector’s show way back in the day, and he was in attendance, so I had to get my monster movie signed!
When Women Ruled the Earth / War Goddess
Luciana Paluzzi is an iconic starlet of Italian genre cinema, and she has made frequent appearances at conventions, mostly James Bond-themed ones due to her being in Thunderball.
I actually really liked her in the Eurospy film The Venetian Affair (1967, Jerry Thorpe). Paluzzi starred in her fair share of pepla, including the very late era peplum War Goddess (1973, Terence Young), which she signed my copy of.
Strike Commando
Reb Brown rules and Yor, the Hunter from the Future rules.
Reb has done many other cult films and is probably (aside from Yor) best known for Space Mutiny which was on MST3K.
However, he was in a handful of other Italian genre films of the 80s, including the men-on-a-mission film, Strike Commando, which is awesome. Severin Films did a nice Blu-ray release a few years back, but 20 years ago the only way I could watch the film was in a multi-film budget DVD set called Mercs: Soldiers of Fortune 10 Feature Film Collection which contained a low quality copy of Strike Commando, which Brown graciously signed to me.
News from Friends
Cool kids I know have been busy lately! Here are some signal boosts I’d like to give out.
Bible Films Blog – House of David
Matt Page over at his Bible Films blog is on a roll doing write ups about season one of House of David. Check them out:
This has been a fun adult comic from Obscura Comics. I previously reviewed issue one and issue two. My issue two review has been updated to reflect that the publisher corrected their missing swag issue and sent it on over. Top notch for Obscura!
Castle of Horror Podcast Appearance
My first podcast appearance of 2025 is on the Castle of Horror Podcast! I was invited on to talk about Antonio Margheriti’s 1964 gothic horror classic, Castle of Blood.
The episode can be streamed at the Castle of Horror Spreaker website here, via the embedded player below, or through your podcast app of preference. Sincere appreciation to Jason Henderson for having me on.
Castle Talk Encore: Nick Roth, Writer and Co-Director of 4/20 Horror Comedy HANKY PANKY –
Castle of Horror Podcast
If you can’t get enough of me talking about Castle of Blood, make sure you give a listen to the Fan2Fan Podcast episode where I talk about the film.
New Edge Sword and Sorcery 5, 6, and 7
New Edge Sword and Sorcery are currently crowdfunding the next three issues of their magazine, which will be two issues of sword and sorcery and one issue of sword and planet!
I am excited to announce I’ll be part of this project! The NESS magazines have featured cocktails in prior issues done by Kevin Beckett, and I’ve been asked to develop brand new cocktails for these upcoming three.
Here is a graphic from the Backerkit campaign of the authors involved in these three issues, and I am chuffed to be listed among them all!
The Backerkit Campaign for NESS 5,6,7 can be found here. Please consider contributing! The campaign ends on March 15th. Sincere appreciation to Oliver Brackenbury for having me on board for this project.
If you’re curious, I did a short interview of issue 00 back in 2023, so check that out!
ECOF 2025
In September of 2025 there will be an Edgar Rice Burroughs Chain of Friendship (ECOF) event down in Willcox, AZ. This event is to celebrate the 150th birthday of Burroughs while also honoring him with a plaque in the town due to his stationing with there the 7th U.S. Calvary in the 1890s. (Note: another ERB convention was held in Willcox back in 2019 and an event recap of that can be read at ERBZine #7059).
Here is a flyer for the 2025 event:
I’ll share more information about the event as I find out more on my website updates. Michele and I will be in attendance for this convention, so I’ve added it to the appearances section of my website as well.
Publishing Recap
Below is a recap of my external publishing endeavors so far in 2025.
Comic Book Review: “The Moon Maid: Catacombs of the Moon #2″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #332.
Comic Book Review: “The Moon Maid: Catacombs of the Moon #3″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #333.
“There’s Always Room” in Merry Creepsmas: The Red Book. Edited by Parth Sarathi Chakraborty. Wicked Shadow Press, 2025.
“Tagliolini al Tarzan: Interview with Actress Bella Cortez on Taur the Mighty” in The Burroughs Bulletin #109. Edited by Henry Franke III. February, 2025.
Calls for Papers/Proposals
Here are some new pop culture CFPs that have crossed my path. Links to these will also be in the CFP page on the navigation bar.
Medieval + Monsters in Comics
Online Sponsored Session Proposed for Medieval + Monsters: Medieval Association of the Midwest (MAM), Mid-America Medieval Association (MAMA), Illinois Medieval Association (IMA) Joint Conference with The Newberry Library Hosted at Dominican University & the Newberry Library 17-18 October 2025
The Medieval Comics Project and the Monsters & the Monstrous Area of the Northeast Popular/American Culture Association seek proposals of 250 words for a proposed online panel devoted to the theme of the medieval and the monstrous in sequential art, comics, manga, and related media.
Topics might include:
Adaptations of medieval monsters in modern comics/manga/related media
Monsters in sequential art of the medieval era
Monsters in marginalia in medieval manuscripts (akin to modern panel comics)
New monsters in comics/manga/related media set in the medieval era
The use of horror in comics/manga/related media set in the medieval era
The use of monstrosity to represent issues of class/gender/race in comic/manga versions of the Middle Ages
Please send submissions (250-word proposal plus a short biographical statement) to the session organizers (Michael A. Torregrossa, Karen Casey Casebier, and Benjamin H. Hoover) at Comics.Get.Medieval@gmail.com by 15 March 2025.
Some fun things and shout outs from these past few weeks.
Boris and Natasha DVD
Someone posted on Bluesky that they made a Letterbox list of original movies for Showtime. Seeing that made me recall I have some of those films on DVD, including this stately copy of Boris and Natasha: The Movie, signed by Sid Haig and Sally Kellerman (both RIP).
I know next to nothing about Rocky and Bullwinkle, maybe seeing a handful of cartoons growing up. However the Boris and Natasha live action movie was on all the time, and I thought it hilarious when I was a kid.
Sid Haig I met at Crypticon in SeaTac in the late 2000s. Sally Kellerman was at a Hollywood Collectors show, either late 2000s or early 2010.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Vol 1
I am a kid of the 80s, so of course I grew up with the TMNT cartoon and live action films. I had not really been into TMNT since I was a kid, but every one in a while I check something out in the franchise. Last month I watched Mutant Mayhem and it was awesome!
Anywho, I do have some of the IDW collections of the original mid-80s Turtles comics. I’ve met Kevin Eastman a few times at different cons, but at a Long Beach Comic Con in the later 2010s I took him the Ultimate Collection Vol 1 to autograph, which he did, and he drew a sweet Donatello (my favorite turtle) in it!
Adventure Time: Bitter Sweets
Another treasure from a comic book con, a copy of Adventure Time: Bitter Sweets signed by artist Chrystin Garland.
I had the honour to meet Garland at a Wondercon in the mid 2010s.
Burden of Dreams
Fitzcarraldo is probably my favorite Herzog/Kinski collaboration, both on screen and off screen. Burden of Dreams is a documentary that captures the mammoth undertaken of this tour de force film.
Les Blank, who passed away a few years ago, was gracious to let me post him my DVD back in the late 2000s to be autographed by him. Probably time for a re-watch, and to also re-watch the supplement where Herzog eats his shoe!
Phantasm & Reggie Bannister
Fangoria reports the sad news that horror icon Reggie Bannister has entered hospice care due to dementia and Parkinson’s. They have an article up letting people know where to send fan mail to him to keep his spirits up (link).
We’ve met Bannister at a few different horror cons over the years. The first time was at a horror con in Seattle that was also a reunion of Phantasm alumni. There Michele and I got our DVD copy of Phantasm signed by Bannister, Bill Thornbury, Kathy Lester, and Don Coscarelli. Bannister joked he loved to sign over Angus Scrimm’s face to tease him.
Back in 2023 Michele appeared on the Fan2Fan Podcast to talk about her memories of Phantasm. Give it a listen!
My friend Lee Mitchell has a new book out! It is called The Eternal End. It’s the third book in her “Divine Darkness” trilogy after The Divine Darkness and The Lasting Light.
More information about the book can be found at Mitchell’s Substack. The book can be found at Amazon as well as at all major book vendors online.
Gyro and the Argonauts!
Joshua Pruett, who has been on many episodes of the Fan2Fan Podcast, and even appeared on our H. P. Lovecast Podcast has a new book coming out, and it is kiddo neo-peplum! It is called Gyro and the Argonauts! and I am super excited for it.
This book can also be ordered at Amazon and other major vendors.
Michele’s 2025 Reading Vlog #2
Michele has a new Vlog up about her 2025 Book challenges!
If you want to see Michele talk about what she is reading as well as seeing some cat cameos, give it a watch!
New Ride the Stream Episodes
Michele and Travis have some brand new episodes of their Ride the Stream vidcast online at YouTube. They dive into the next few episodes of Lost.
Here is their discussion of episode seven of season 1:
And episode eight:
New episodes drop every Friday on YouTube. Keep an eye on their YouTube channel, or give them a follow on Bluesky.
Every year I like to do a recap of accomplishments for the prior year and talk about future projects and goals. You can find prior year end summaries here:
In short, 2024 was not a prolific year for me, especially compared to 2023. In terms of quantity of getting things published, it was a painful year. I definitely was not on my A-game this year. Now, part of this has been my focus on the Emmanuelle/Black Emanuelle book, which has had its ups and many downs. That manuscript will be done soon and sent to the publisher, freeing me up to tackle my backlog and other items on my to do list.
Despite this, there was some pleasant surprises in 2024. Let’s take a look!
Publication Accomplishments
In the realm of physical publications, I had zero new essays published this past year. However, 2024 was the year of the reprint because I had a ton of content from my archives get a new life. I’ve never had reprints of my work before, so this was a comforting accomplishment.
“A Hero Will Endure”: Essays at the Twentieth Anniversary of Gladiator, which contains my essay “Dance or Dēcēdere: Gladiator and Industrial Music Sampling” saw a softcover edition published in November.
Portions of my master’s thesis on Antonio Margheriti’s film Castle of Blood was reprinted in the booklet for the Artus films release of the film.
The National Capital Panthans Journal reprinted six of my Edgar Rice Burroughs comic book reviews and convention writeups across six issues.
My essay I did for Weird Tales was mentioned in Ellen Datlow’s The Best Horror of the Year #16.
Here at my website I had 13 articles published (so a bit better than 1 a month):
Peplum Ponderings = 3
Comic Book Reviews and Articles = 3
Book Reviews = 2
Music Reviews and Essays = 2
Interviews Conducted = 2
Videogame Articles = 1
Podcast Accomplishments
Michele and I went into 2024 with big plans and goals for the H. P. Lovecast Podcast. Early in the year though, however, we had a bad encounter, which killed our podcasting momentum. That, and combined that I was working on the Emmanuelle book and Michele on her Mummy ’99 book, we put HP Lovecast on the back burner until the autumn when we resumed making new episodes. We are climbing out the rut for sure.
23 Podcasts and Vidcasts in 2024:
11 appearances on Scholars from the Edge of Time
7 appearances on Fan2Fan
5 episodes of H. P. Lovecast
2025 Expectations
I’m hoping 2025 will be a big turnaround for me. There’s lots on my to do list and even a few items that floating out there waiting to be published.
Podcasting
2025 marks the 10 year anniversary of the HP Lovecast Podcast! What do Michele and I have planned? Not sure yet, but we will get it sussed out. We have an episode on The Prophecy that will be published in February (it was going to be our X-mas episode, so a little late).
Michele and I will also be continuing with the Scholars from the Edge of Time vidcast in March.
I’m already queued up to be on the Castle of Horror Podcast to talk about, well, Margheriti’s film Castle of Blood! So, folks, if you want me on your vidcast or podcast, feel free to reach out!
And not me, but I do want to plug Michele’s new vidcast, Ride the Stream, with Travis Lakata. They’ve got LOTS of episodes in the pipe on the TV show Lost.
Publications
The Emmanuelle/Black Emanuelle book will be sent to the publishers in the next month or so. So, cross fingers all goes well for it!
Hopefully my essay on peplum cats will see publication this year.
I am on the hook to do a Roger Corman and Sampling essay due later this year. After doing the Gladiator and Sampling essay, it will be fun to build on my existing scholarship.
I’ve got a backlog of comic book and book-book reviews I am hoping to churn out for my website. Some of these writings will also be concurrently published in the Panthans Journal.
I’ve been asked to create some unique cocktails to be published in a few issues of a magazine (not tiki, surprisingly!). More info when I’m allowed to spill more beans.
On the subject of tiki, I’ll be getting some articles out there for Exotica Moderne as well.
Finally, my interview with peplum starlet Bella Cortez will be published in an issue of the Burroughs Bibliophiles Bulletin later this year.
Conferences
I’m only slated for one conference this year which will be the Edgar Rice Burroughs Circle of Friendship that will be in Willcox, AZ in late September. I have a presentation I’ll be doing on the sword and planet genre.
On top of personal ongoings, (I am working on getting my driver’s license, yay!), 2025 is going to be BUSY. I am not expecting my output to be like it was in 2023, but I’m optimistic I’m going to realize some cool stuff.
Thank you to all the friends, peers, and colleagues who support what I do. And thank you, yes you visitor to my website, as well.
Publishing Recap
Below is a recap of my publishing endeavors so far in 2025.
Comic Book Review: “The Moon Maid: Catacombs of the Moon #2″ reprinted in the National Capital Panthans Journal #332.
Calls for Papers/Proposals
Here are some new pop culture CFPs that have crossed my path. Links to these will also be in the CFP page on the navigation bar.
The Handbook of Trans Cinema
Chapter proposals are invited for The Handbook of Trans Cinema. Join confirmed contributors like Cáel M. Keegan, author of Lana and Lilly Wachowski: Sensing Transgender. We seek a broadly international group of scholarly contributors.
Past books have provided in-depth studies of transgender themes and filmmakers in selected works of cinema, e.g., Rebecca Bell-Metereau’s Transgender Cinema (2019), Eliza Steinbock’s Shimmering Images: Trans Cinema, Embodiment, and the Aesthetics of Change (2019), and Akkadia Ford’s Trans New Wave Cinema (2021). As a next step, The Handbook of Trans Cinema provides an encyclopedic overview of international trans cinema, with chapters examining the variety of genres of trans cinema from around the world, as well as the connections between these films and core concepts in trans studies and in film theory. Each chapter will provide a broad overview of its subject, with extensive references to both trans theory and film theory. In addition to giving surveys of the chapter’s topic, chapters will include in-depth discussion of at least three films. Abstracts for proposed chapters should include several references to both trans theory and film theory, and abstracts should list at least three films that will be explored in-depth.
Please see the list of high priority chapters at the end of this CFP. Proposals for other topics will also be considered, but all chapters will offer broad overviews of their subject, and not traditional scholarly analyses of a single film or filmmaker. To be most competitive, each chapter proposal should examine films from multiple countries and in multiple languages, with the exception of chapters in the handbook’s Part IV. “National Overviews of Trans Films,” which will each focus on a single country’s films. (See the listing of high priority chapters for the four parts of the book at the end of this CFP.)
Interested authors should submit a 300-word abstract, a 200-word biography, and a sample of a previously published chapter or article to https://bit.ly/HandbookofTransCinema no later than January 30, 2025. Proposals submitted by email will not be accepted. Abstracts and biographies should be submitted as Word documents, and previously published chapters or articles should be submitted as PDFs. Both Word files and PDFs should contain the author’s name in the file names. Please include your email address in your biography file so we can contact you with our decision about your proposal.
You are welcome to submit more than one abstract. If you decide to submit multiple abstracts for different chapters, please add a note at the top of each abstract to indicate whether you wish to be considered for writing only a single chapter, or whether you wish to be considered for writing more than one chapter.
The most competitive proposals will detail the author’s argument. It is not enough to describe what you plan to do in your chapter. You should summarize what you will conclude. For example, it’s not enough to say you will examine multiple films from diverse countries. List the specific films you propose to include and then explain what your analysis will demonstrate.
Authors will be notified whether their proposals are accepted by March 20, 2025. Partial first drafts are due by July 15, 2025; solid first drafts of full chapters are due by October 1, 2025; and final versions that cross-reference other chapters extensively are due December 1, 2025. All chapters must include at least one author with a PhD. In your 200-word biography, please note the year and university where you earned your doctorate. Only previously unpublished works will be considered.
Part IV. National Overviews of Trans Films (National Overviews Are Also Encouraged and Warmly Invited for Other Countries Not Listed)
Trans Cinema from Argentina
Trans Cinema from Australia
Trans Cinema from Brazil
Trans Cinema from Canada
Trans Cinema from Chile
Trans Cinema from China
Trans Cinema from Costa Rica
Trans Cinema from Egypt
Trans Cinema from France
Trans Cinema from Germany
Trans Cinema from Ghana
Trans Cinema from Hong Kong
Trans Cinema from India
Trans Cinema from Indonesia
Trans Cinema from Iran
Trans Cinema from Iraq
Trans Cinema from Israel
Trans Cinema from Italy
Trans Cinema from Japan
Trans Cinema from Mexico
Trans Cinema from New Zealand
Trans Cinema from Nigeria
Trans Cinema from Norway
Trans Cinema from Poland
Trans Cinema from Russia
Trans Cinema from South Africa
Trans Cinema from South Korea
Trans Cinema from Spain
Trans Cinema from Sweden
Trans Cinema from Switzerland
Trans Cinema from Taiwan
Trans Cinema from Thailand
Trans Cinema from the United Kingdom
Trans Cinema from the United States
Technical and Professional Knowledge in Late Antiquity
Society for Classical Studies 157th Annual Meeting JANUARY 7-10, 2026 SAN FRANCISCO
Call for Papers for Panel Sponsored by the Society for Late Antiquity
Organized by Betsy Bevis, Department of Classics, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
The Society for Late Antiquity invites papers that in some way situate themselves at the intersection of intellectual and economic history (broadly conceived) and speak to aspects of technical or professional knowledge in the long Late Antiquity. Because professional and technical knowledge is often knowledge intended to be put into practice, we encourage submissions that incorporate archaeological and other material evidence.
The past decade has been especially fruitful for both economic and intellectual histories of the ancient Mediterranean. Monographs, such as Bond 2016, or Hawkins 2016, have expanded our understanding of specific professions in the classical world, while intellectual histories such as Johnson 2010, Eshelman 2012, or Gellar-Goad and Poult 2024 have tackled topics such as reading, intellectual communities, or the transmission and creation of knowledge. Recent works such as Mark Lettney’s (2023) The Christianization of Knowledge in Late Antiquity, or Salvatore Cosentino’s (2022) “Pillars of Empire,” that deal specifically with the later centuries of Mediterranean Antiquity continue these trends into Late Antiquity. This panel endeavors to bring together these two strands of scholarship and examine their continuing impact in the post-Classical world.
Ideas for submissions might include:
Technical Treatises – such as agricultural, military, or magical manuals. What role do compendia and encyclopedic works play in the transmission of technical and professional knowledge?
New Professions and Technologies – such as the expansion of imperial bureaucracies, professionalization of Christian clergy, or technologies (e.g., large-scale water mills, or tube-constructed vaulting) and art forms (e.g., cage cups or gold-sandwich glass) that expanded or developed after the 3rd century CE.
Technologies of Knowing – codices, tabulation, exegetical or typological readings of text or iconography.
Technique/Technology within Space – where and how is professional and technical knowledge visible in the environment? Can we reconstruct changes in technical knowledge from changes in workshop spaces?
Fragments of Knowing – where and how do technologies and professions end or break down? Processes of recycling, deconstruction, or de-skilling.
Professional Education and Organization – how did one become a “professional”?
Please send abstracts that follow the guidelines for individual abstracts (see the SCS Guidelines for Authors of Abstracts) by email to Betsy Bevis, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign at (ebevis@illinois.edu) by February 14, 2025.
Please ensure that the abstracts are anonymous.
The organizers will review all submissions anonymously, and their decision will be communicated to the authors of abstracts by March 21, 2025, with enough time that those whose abstracts are not chosen can participate in the individual abstract submission process for the upcoming SCS meeting.
Miscellaneous Tidbits
Some fun things and shout outs from these past few weeks.
Wildfire 7
I lived in Orange, CA from 2010 to 2020, so I am no stranger to the fires that happen in SoCal, but these fires going on right now are just Earth-shatteringly tragic. There’s places I’ve been to before that simply don’t exist anymore. I’m lucky that none of my friends have lost their homes, but thousands of others have.
I saw in the news about deployed prisoner fire fighters and it reminded me of the movie Wildfire 7:
My copy is signed by the director, Jason Bourque, and actors Tahmoh Penikett and William DeVry.
I have not seen this movie since the late 2010s, so I’ll be fuzzy on remembering the plot, but basically Tracy Gold is the victim of domestic violence, but winds up going to prison anyways, and joins the fire fighting squad in California. I’m pretty sure the movie is probably extremely relevant today regarding the punishing the women victims and the ideas of putting prisoners into legal slavery.
Nightmare Weekend
A fun one I shared on BlueSky, here is my copy of Nightmare Weekend signed by Andrea Thompson, best known for her portray of Talia Winters on Babylon 5.
We met her at an autograph show back in 2009. Here we are!
The Monuments of Mars
An odd duck in my autograph media collection, here is a copy of The Monuments of Mars: A City on the Edge of Forever signed by author/conspiracy theorist Richard C. Hoagland:
Why do I have this book in my collection? Well, growing up in the 90s, the channel I watched the most often was the Sci-Fi Channel (Saturday Anime! MST3K!) An aside from commercials shilling Dianetics, the commercial that appeared the most often on the network was for a VHS tape of the Monuments of Mars: A Terrestrial Connection:
So, I grew up seeing that commercial many times a day.
Years, years later I am at a Half Price Books in Tacoma Washington, and a copy of the book was sitting there, on the shelf, all autographed, for not even eight dollars. Nostalgia kicked in and I bought it.
Have I ever read it? Not a chance. I am certain 95% of the book is totally made up.
Ride the Stream Vidcast Episodes
Michele and Travis have some brand new episodes of their Ride the Stream Vidcast online at YouTube. They dive into the next few episodes of Lost.
Here is part 2 of discussing the pilot:
Here is their discussion on the episode “Tabula Rasa”:
And here is their discussion on the episode “Walkabout”:
