Personal / Website News
Life Stuff
Apologies in advance that original writing here at my website has been sparse. Michele and I recently bought a house and we are in the process of moving in. The vast majority of my library is in boxes at the new place. We will be moved in by the end of the month with January being spent unpacking and getting settled. After that, I’ll be up and running again, writing content here but for other venues and projects as well.
Despite this, LOTS of cool stuff is still going on. Read below!
Emmanuelle / Black Emanuelle CFP
The Call for Papers for the 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.
New H. P. Lovecast Podcast Episode
A brand new episode of H. P. Lovecast Podcast is online.
This is our monthly Transmissions episode, however we did a longer form interview instead of a handful of smaller ones. Our interview is with P. L. McMillan and her new novella, Sisters of the Crimson Vine. The episode can be streamed at the H. P. Lovecast Buzzsprout page, via the embedded player below, or via your podcast app of preference.
HPLCP Transmissions – Ep 17 – P. L. McMillan – H. P. Lovecast Podcast
For December we are going to do a recap episode where Michele and I talk about projects completed this year, upcoming news, podcast news, and so on.
A Hero Will Endure Update
A few years in the making, but the collection, A Hero Will Endure: Essays at the Twentieth Anniversary of Gladiator, is set to be published this February by Vernon Press. This book contains my essay, “Dance or Dēcēdere: Gladiator and Industrial Music Sampling.” There is no cover art yet, but there is a product/pre-order page at the publisher’s website.
Footage Fiends Issue 1
Pre-orders are open for the first issue of the Footage Fiends zine. I have a short essay in this debut issue (tentatively) titled “Analisi Della Cosa: Found Footage in Caltiki and Italian Theater Going Practices.”
Issues are tied to tiers at the Footage Fiends Patreon: $5 digital and $10 for physical with issues being published quarterly.
A promotional clip for the Zine can be found on the Footage Fields Twitter:
Check it all out and consider supporting!
Awards Season
Horror/speculative award season is upon us. This year I really only have one piece of writing eligible for the various awards out there: my essay “Strange Realities: Twilight Zone-sploitation in Encounter with the Unknown” in The Many Lives of the Twilight Zone: Essays on the Television and Film Franchise. Thank you for your interest/consideration!
New Scholars from the Edge of Time
Michele and I appeared on Hercules Invictus’ Sword and Sandal cinema the last Thursday of November. I talked about the “City of Evil” episode of Thundarr the Barbarian while Michele talked about Ouja Mummy and Luxor. The episode can be heard via BlogTalkRadio.
Tribel Social Media
With all the brouhaha happening at Twitter, I’ve decided to start checking out alternative social medias. Unfortunately my iPhone is at capacity so I cannot install the app-only Hive social media. I’m on a waitlist for Post. However, I did setup an account at Tribel, which can be found here. Tribel is pretty much a ghost town right now, but I’ll wait and see what happens. Come give me a follow if you’re on the platform.
Miscellaneous Tidbits
Mimic Soundtrack (And Plans)
Record Store Day had a Black Friday event this year. There was one vinyl I was really, really gunning for, and that was the new LP of the Mimic soundtrack, composed by Marco Beltrami. When I got to Zia Records, there was only one copy on the shelf and I snagged that bad boy.
Michele and I talked about Mimic and Mimic 2 on our H. P. Lovecast Podcast (check them out – links on the titles) and plan on doing Mimic 3 next year.
I have other plans for the Mimic soundtrack. The first Front Line Assembly album I ever bought was Implode which contains much sampling of dialogue and music cues from both Mimic and Event Horizon. It’s been on the idea board to write *something* about this. We shall see what I come up with.
Elmer Batters Polaroid
I am a huge fan of the stockings photography of Elmer Batters. Back in 2015 Michele and I were able to visit an Elmer Batters and Eric Stanton exhibit that Taschen Books was curating in LA. Lots of great art and photography, and polaroids too!
There was an option to buy the polaroids, but at that point I didn’t have the funds to do so.
Fast forward to autumn 2022 and I was able to work with Taschen to procure a an original Batters Polaroid:
The polaroid was taken in the 1970s and it is awesome. The model is unfortunately unknown. It’s a fairly conservative Batters piece and I adore it.
The back of the frame the polaroid came in was autographed by Dian Hanson, known for many of the pinup books and Big Book Ofs that Taschen published (I cited her Big Butt Book for my masters thesis). Sincere thanks to Bernard at Taschen for coordinating all of this.
Rest in Peplum
French actress Mylène Demongeot passed away on December 1st (Deadline Article).
She starred in peplum and peplum-adjacent films such as:
- The Giant of Marathon (1959)
- Romulus and the Sabines (1961)
- Gold for the Caesars (1963)