poem: ...tempestuous night...from 30nov14...

...A Buffet of Short Horror...25OCT14...

Robert Louis Stevenson wrote horror.  I didn't know this until I was randomly looking up my favorite authors and relating them to horror.  Assuredly, I came across The Body Snatcher, first published in 1884, as part of a magazine extra.  The story follows a pair of questionable medical students that make sure they never run low on cadeavors for their employer.  It is based on the real-life case of the Burke and Hare murders.  Murder as a business came long before Izzy Azalea - this pair made sure that sixteen bodies made it to the nefarious Doctor Robert Knox.

No these are gone....GONE!!!  This is
the greatest horror story of modern times.
That had treacherous murder.  But raspberry
donuts.  Raspberry...donuts.

M.R. James wrote The Tractate Middoth and was published in 1911 in a second collection of ghost stories.  Middoth recounts the deathbed story of a dying man.  Some twenty years earlier the titular book is sought out by one John Eldred, but a ghost takes the book before it can be retrieved.  The ghost is a protector of sorts, as the pages hold within it the inheritance.  There is vengeance from beyond the grave for Eldred.  The story has been adapted several times on British television.

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson (1948), is one of the most famous horror stories of its time, with a theme very well known today.  Not to spoil the ending, but as the name suggests, a small town holds a yearly lottery.  From it, a name is chosen and the fun begins.  This theme has been copied several times since.  There was an episode of Sliders in fact that ran the lottery directly from an ATM.  There's also little known movies like The Hunger Games.

Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is well known, in fact being one of the earliest pieces of American literature to have survived in popularity since it was first published in 1820.  Irving also wrote Rip Van Winkle.  When Disney started to adapt Legend they found the running time not long enough for a feature, so it was packaged along with Wind in the Willows during WWII.

Mark Twain's A Ghost Story comes to us from his 1875 Sketches New and Old.  As Twain is a man of sincere wit, especially as it comes to the pitiable type, he delivers in spades here.

Starburst Flavored Candy Corn

Like Stevenson, Charles Dickens' Three Ghost Stories is an epic writer, and the supernatural is a natural fit for his style.  Dickens and Poe can be considered on the same playing field in many respects.  In Three, the most popular of them is The Signal Man, but The Haunted House and The Trial for Murder are just as effective.  In Signal, a railway signal-man tells the story of sighting a ghost, each time preceding a disaster upon the tracks.  It calls back a disaster five years before Dickens wrote the story, the Clayton Tunnel Disaster in 1861.

The Phial of Dread by Fitz Hugh Ludlow.

For full site, please visit edwardianjackal.com

Zots - never had them.

...measured...

How shall we measure it
Is it physicality?
The rush of blood through our members
The blush response
In tears then?
In long and languid sighs
When reciprocity is figured like an equation that ends falsely
An irregular sum
A null statement; the sum or product was false to begin with
Then what was this that was felt
Far to look backward, inward
If by feeling then how measured
For I felt and feel
In tears and sighs
My God how I apologize.  Measure it thusly?

Perhaps in works?
In poems and drafts and art
In sketches and of clay
How many to prove? 
Words as proof, as better parts where the whole may be lacking
I know I know
I know it like the song I capture in a sigh
The declarative made when ended in a tear stain
The ink run
But not far enough.

Is it time?
If it is not enough now, would a year suffice?
Is that how it can be proved.
Two or more.
Twenty?
If the sense of novelty can be stripped away in the nearness of now
Would then you see?
If, combined, I stack all these as a whole in two decades or more
And lay them at your feet and earnestly lie, a poorer comparison
would be proved
But the physical will pass as it should
But the art remains
But will it prove?  When I am gone?

...quotes from "The Touchstone" by Edith Wharton (1900)...

Found very little quotes online that are associated with the fabulous short story The Touchstone by Edith Wharton, so I thought I would combine the ones that stuck out for me.  Read it on the way home from Albany a few weeks ago and it had a tremendous impact.

The story of Glennard, all from his lens, is that of love-never-having-blossomed, but the effects of it, the 'unloved' letters of a famous author (Miss Aubyn), are the source of his establishment, the basis of his marriage and the eventual comeuppance for going through with a despicable act of selfishness.

Wharton famously plays with the inner turmoil of Glennard and the effects of the preternatural Aubyn - although little is heard of her - is a constant threat to the world Glennard attempts to create.  All quotes are referring to the Hesperus version, as always I recommend purchasing content - especially such a novella as sublime as this.

"Later, when to be loved by her had been a state to touch any man's imagination, the physical reluctance had, inexplicably, so overborne the intellectual attraction, that the last years had been, to both of them, an agony of conflicting impulses....To have been loved by the most brilliant woman of her day, and to have been incapable of loving her, seemed to him, in looking back, derisive evidence of his limitations..." (page 5)

"....her most salient attribute, or that at least to which her conduct gave most consistent expression, was a kind of passionate justness - the intuitive feminine justness that is so much rare than a reasoned impartiality." (page 9)

"...a proportionate pleasure in being for once able to feast openly on a dish liberally seasoned with the outrageous.  He was at an age when all the gifts and graces are but so much undiscriminated food to the ravening egoism of youth.  Vanity contents itself with the coarsest diet; there is no palate so fastidious as that of self-distrust." (page 11)

"The attitude of looking up is a strain on the muscles; and it was becoming more and more Glennard's opinion that brains, in a woman, should be merely the obverse of beauty....and while she had enough prettiness to exasperate him by her incapacity to make use of it, she seemed invincibly ignorant of any of the little artifices whereby women contrive to hide their defects and even to turn them into graces." (page 13)

"The door was never to reopen; but through its narrow crack Glennard, as the years went on, became more and more conscious of an inextinguishable light directing its small ray towards the past which consumed so little of his own commemorative oil." (page 16)

"Perhaps the only service an unloved woman can render the man she loves is to enhance and prolong his illusions about her rival....This inscrutable composure was perhaps her chief grace in Glennard's eyes.  Reserve, in some natures, implies merely the locking of empty rooms or the dissimulation of awkward encumbrances; but Miss Trent's reticence was to Glennard like the closed door to a sanctuary, and his certainty of divining the hidden treasure made him content to remain outside in the happy expectancy of the neophyte."  (page 18)

"Oh, come, come,' Dresham judicially interposed; 'after all, they're not love letters.'  'No - that's the worst of it; they're unloved letters.'" (page 41)

"We live in our own souls as in an unmapped region, a few acres of which we have cleared for our habitation; while of the nature of those nearest us we know but the boundaries that march with ours." (page 49)

"Our self esteem is apt to be based on the hypothetical great act we have never had occasion to perform; and even the most self-scrutinizing modesty credits itself negatively with a high standard of conduct." (page 54)

"The desiccating air of memory had turned her into the mere abstraction of a woman, and this unexpected evocation seemed to bring her nearer than she had ever been in life." (page 68)

"...as a man who has mastered the spirit of a foreign tongue turns with renewed wonder to the pages his youth has plodded over." (page 69)

"The blow he had struck had blunted the edge of his anger, and the unforeseen extent of the hurt inflicted did not alter the fact that his weapon had broken in his hands...[his] unwillingness to quarrel with him was the last stage of [Glennard's] abasement." (page 78)

...pre-mission briefing to the crew of the Prometheus as led by mission strategist Kenny Powers...

RE: mission proposal to  the specialists aboard the Prometheus on its voyage to the Engineer world of LV_233.  Vickers, Janek and Shaw in attendance, with the briefing led by MLB pitcher, and Giants #19, Kenny "Fucking" Powers.

Firstly, keep an eye on that dick head android, David.  That sneaky sumbitch is spending way too much time learning.  No one needs to learn ancient languages, especially a fruity robot.  He looks like that Australian dude.  What's his name?  David Bowie.  Never cared for that guy.  It's not rock, not at all.  Plus, that fucking toaster likes to sass.  He talks back.  I'd fucking smack that thin-lipped grin off his face.  Dick.

Next, before you land on any planet, after spending four trillion dollars of Weyland's money, you may want to like rotate arounds it for a while.  I know I would.  Get to know the weather patterns, identify any hostile environments, seismic activity.  All that shit.  I mean Janek, you don't want to land your sweet ass space vehicle on a planet you just got to right?  Take your time, at least a few weeks (as recommended to me by the Extra-Stellar Commission - you know scientists).  You don't want one of them space worms snatching at your crotch like in Empire Strikes Back.  I mean, you are not no Han Solo, that's for damn sure.  Vickers, you keep saying you the one in control, what with your hot tight ass and shit, those bodacious tatas - you may want to tee up with Janek and square that shit away.

[Speaking of which Vickers, I'm getting over a relationship, but you can like stack and rack on me when you get that itch in your nether regions.  That'd be alright.  Kenny's got the power to make you cosmic cum all over the damned place.]

Ok, now let's get the mission straight.  You all need to decide, right now, that you want to actually come back.  Unless all 17 of you have a death wish, maybe call a few huddles and say, 'Hey, let's do like our research and shit, get some rocks and skeletons and get back home.  Let's not all die because we refused to make good decisions.'  When I was closing games with the Merman, I would drop those truth bombs all over the dug, right.  Let the team know to back this train up.  I'm looking at you, Shaw.  You're the scientist, I figure you know all about that scientific method and performing all sorts of protocols and procedures and shit and not run into an ancient alien facility like rhesus monkeys on jamboree.

Rule number whatever: never take off a helmet on a foreign body, no matter what the read-outs say.  The human eye is good (and I can hit a goddamned fly off a fence from 60 feet), but you will not be able to tell if there are microbes or deadly alien world viruses, or small-dicked asshole space weeds that'll shoot pearls into your mouth.  Unless you like that sort of thing....Vickers.  I'm up here, baby.  Eye contact.

And, hey, don't just touch shit because its there.  That's what digital cameras are for.  It's 2093, we got the right technology instead of carrying around ancient alien body parts in duffel bags.

If you see any alien snakes, don't touch the little fuckers.  Let them be.  Do we touch snakes in the 'Bama.  No.  That's why we have brains.  David, man, stop looking at me with those dead fucking eyes, bro.  You do NOT want any of this.

A controlled mission means we work together, listen to one another and follow some basic scientific guidelines.  We do not prance off on our own, split up while on a planet light years away from Earth.  Let's do some drills before we go off into dark caverns.

Oh, and take weapons, dummy.  Second amendment is in full effect in outer space.  I looked it up.

Most government agencies, by the year 2014, know pretty damn well that any lab work can be done outside of the main habitation of the Prom.  It's like when you get crabs.  You just don't bring them back home to the family.  You stay in a hotel for a few nights and let the beds take care of it.  They transfer right over like little migrant workers.

The captain doesn't leave the ship, ever.  In fact, a core group should stay well away from the landing party.  That's why they make doors.

Don't kick bodies laying right outside that already fucked with a camera and are looking a lot like Regan from The Exorcist.  Shoot that piece of shit a few times in the head before you get within tickle distance.

In fact, I'm looking at Dave over there eye-fucking me, so you know what?  You just stay outside for the duration of the mission.  I get a sick vibe from this asshole.  Is there like a kill switch?  If anything that James Cameron or Michael Bay taught us in their documentaries is that robots are only destined to kill their maker.  Fuck this dick.

If things happen to look like they are stockpiling an arsenal of shit in climate controlled rooms that are locked and have a pile of dead warriors outside of it - you probably want to live that shit alone.  That's like a 'do not enter' sign.  Maybe send some of those laser eggs along.

If things go south, leave that fucking planet.  There's no need to hang around and yell at one another.  You know who are the smart ones?  The ones that cut and run motherfucker.

All of that being said, have a great mission and hopefully those Engineers have nice taut asses and luscious tits.  Peace out!

...a visit to Yaddo in Saratoga, NY State...24jul14...

Yaddo (yeah dough) is an artist colony that was bequeathed (through a trust) to future artists to use the grounds as a place of contemplation and collaboration, it is located near the Saratoga Race Track in Upstate New York.  The estate was given over by Spencer and Katrina Trask, he a venerable financier and she an author.

Walking the grounds does induce in the spirit of the artist a sense of contemplation.  It is far from overly showy, and instead is conducive to the temperament of those that are taking the inward journey necessary to create their art.  The grounds lack contradiction - with a wide open lawn, several fountains, marble benches and statuary that set a fixed gaze on order.

 

The natural font (the picture of the mound of rock below) allows for a gentle sound of falling water, proving the contemplative attributes of rain as it falls softly on the rounded stones below.  From it, it runs down a small rivulet.  The rounded cup of water hosting a small nymph playing lithely under the shadows of the thin trees. Overlooking this is a small plant of blue Harebell.

There are koi.  There is a small lake that does not allow fishing, so I could only imagine the creatures lurking in its muddy depths.

   




One could imagine the footfalls of so many authors as they walked alone around these gardens for months at a time.  It is thought that Poe worked on "The Raven" here.  Some 5,500 artists since its inception have used the grounds to help in their work.  The NY Public Library has archives of some of the material available to view.  There are even rolls by type of media the artist uses, like this roll of writers.

Having just read much of Sylvia Plath's poetry in Manhattan, I was pleasantly surprised by my Aunt Pam's insistence on visiting here.  Then, seeing that Edith Wharton spent time here as well, I was induced to purchase The Touchstone at Albany Airport.  I was captivated all the way home by the novella and finished it by the time I touched back down at John Wayne.

"Thin as ferns and fronds,
The woodland settles down,
Drowned in that still pool,
Where stars will stream and drown"
- The Lake, Edith Wharton (at Yaddo)

...Writing? Songs Sublime Regarding Alcoholism...10july14...

Listen to all as a YouTube playlist or individually below....


Neil Diamond - Red Red Wine - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeJ55sUacPM

Sia - Chandelier - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DS-h67qEiY

The Streets - Blinded By the Light - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik0f_WUg5M0

Modest Mouse - The Good Times Are Killing Me - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZL1cRSRUUZQ

Blink 182 - Man Overboard - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u38TqU5rAyk&feature=kp

Kris Kristofferson - Sunday Morning Coming Down - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se2Cg3ArHJ8

Webb Pierce - There Stands the Glass - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5YEHNGB0rA

Henry Mancini/Andy Williams - Days of Wine and Roses - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UB0GkgHpJLY

Frank Sinatra - Drinking Again - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeZfl45GHvo

Eagles - Tequila Sunrise - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKLucjUmJN0

Elbow - Powder Blue - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u15JygmXM8


Rehab - Sittin' at the Bar - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_0pw-LeloU

Sublime - What Happened - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iV3fYlhRBwI

Amy Winehouse - You Know I'm No Good - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-I2s5zRbHg

Johnny Cash - Hurt - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aF9AJm0RFc

...America...the Excerpts of Phillis Wheatley and Jupiter Hammon...04jul14...

Contemplating early African American poets of the Revolutionary Age this Fourth of July

Phillis Wheatley's "On Imagination" (1767~73) Excerpts - Full Text Here

"Thy various works, imperial queen, we see,
How bright their forms! how deck'd with pomp by thee!
Thy wond'rous acts in beauteous order stand,
And all attest how potent is thine hand.

From star to star the mental optics rove,
Measure the skies, and range the realms above.
There in one view we grasp the mighty whole,
Or with new worlds amaze th' unbounded soul.

Though Winter frowns to Fancy's raptur'd eyes
The fields may flourish, and gay scenes arise;
The frozen deeps may break their iron bands,
And bid their waters murmur o'er the sands.

Before thy throne the subject-passions bow,
Of subject-passions sov'reign ruler Thou,
At thy command joy rushes on the heart,
And through the glowing veins the spirits dart."

Jupiter Hammon's "An Address to Ms. Phillis Wheatley" (1778) 
Excerpts - Full Text Here

"O, come you pious youth: adore
The wisdom of thy God.
In bringing thee from distant shore,
To learn His holy word.

While thousands tossed by the sea,
And others settled down,
God's tender mercy set thee free,
From dangers still unknown.

Come you, Phillis, now aspire,
And seek the living God,
So step by step thou mayst go higher,
Till perfect in the word.

The humble soul shall fly to God,
And leave the things of time,
Start forth as 'twere at the first word,
To taste things more divine."

Journey of a Slave 1863 - Library of Congress

...Kickstarter Reading Rainbow...Call to Give...

Not that it's 'new' news, but LeVar Burton is attempting to raise 5 million dollars to bring back Reading Rainbow. The obvious, wondrous thing about Reading Rainbow is that it encourages children not only read, but to interact with books, and most importantly, share those stories. For me, as a child, it was a utopia of what the experience of being a reader is like.  We tell stories, we share stories, we live stories.  And, LeVar was the perfect host and his love of books is unquestionable.

Refreshing looking back, it is odd to have a world where children's television was apolitical.  There was a shield of sorts that allowed kids to enjoy and consume without the harangue of adults and their agenda, whatever that may be.  These were great stories, pure and simple and without the adornment of fashion and opinion.  It'll be interesting to see how LeVar can navigate in today's highly (overly) politicized environment.

There was also a learning experience in the format of RR.  They had lessons and values and trips to places you may not know about.

Sadly, despite it being on youtube for a year, the amount of hits is anemic.  It's hard to compete with drivel and sensationalism, then taking a moment, taking a breath, taking a break and opening a book.

http://www.readingrainbow.com/ 

...May is Short Story Month...http://shortstorymonth.com/

As May is Short Story Month, here's some links to read a few.  Full disclosure, I'm a whore.  The retail books on top and a few excerpts below those.

POWDER BLUE GENTLEMAN: iTunes, Lulu, Barnes & Noble - includes "These Old Hands of Mine", "Awaiting Art's Tide", "The Knight", "Fervidis"

HEART-SHAPED BOX: iTunes, Lulu, Barnes & Noble - includes "Carpool", "Chase", "The Tragedy of Teraku and Binjin"

BING CROSBY & THE INTERMINABLE DA VINCI: iTunes, Lulu, Barnes & Noble

...
BING CROSBY...first three parts here, here, here and so forth...
CEYX & ALCYONE...a purposeful attempt at a tonal story
BLASTER..she carried her laser pistol with authority
PERFECIA...what we find when we dig through the dust of the past
MISS KITTY...on Wattpad
MAY, SHE THREATENED
SKIN
CHARLIE GUEST...on Wattpad
NUMBERS GAME...on Wattpad
NICK CAGE & JAY-Z: IN TIME...on Wattpad
WHAT ABSINTHE
OBVIOUSLY, POISON
PRESAM
EULOGY
LE MORT
THE SEQOI A STUDY
...that's what we call, in popular parlance, a veritable crap load.

...simply the prettiest poetry books...St Martin's Press Hardcovers...17mar14...

There's nothing better than the right book to fit the context of its content.  When the overall shape, cover type, slip type, paper weight, font, color, heft come together - it is a delight to the senses.  As with any book, they have the power to transform the ordinary to a time where the memento is within your grasp.  Its smell and its feel can bring one back to a sunny day spent at the beach where the companion was only you and the author.

A problem for e-readers is that the physical aspects of the books are gone: they have been assimilated into the size and heft of your e-book reader, whatever form that happens to be.  They never change.  Worst of all, the words may very well scale according to the changes in the resolution of the screen.  [Yes, there is an obvious reason for this and a definite power in having that ability, but I make the argument that the book is just as powerful to tell the story when it is fixed.]

A book is private.  It is property.  You feel it within the confines of what is around you.  It is interplay.  Light hits each book differently.  It interacts with your unique physicality.  A phone or a tablet simply don't do that.  They server their purpose in a pinch, but the experience of the read is drastically altered.  And the smell!

Had I known that the Brownings had an apartment next to the
Spanish Steps, I would have scrutinized this much
more closely while there.  Apparently you can
rent out several different 'literary' apartments all around Rome.

St. Martin's Press created a series of poetry encapsulating the author's best work in a format that is a delight to touch.  It is not perfect, mind you, but, for the sub-$10 price, these are within anyone's grasp to collect and enjoy.

Although they are not pocket books in the explicit sense, they are true to the form of memento books - compact, not at all unwieldy, light enough that you scarcely know it is there.  They (roughly) follow the UK's traditional Duke format of 7.5 x 5.3.  The rectangular feel is just enough to get the sense of a traditional format of length along the sides, perfect for the scarce illustrations and the formatting of the poetry.


And the placement of the poetry is where these shine.  It is if, almost lovingly, the printer carefully placed the words on the page in such a way that the author would have easily approved.  There are compilation series that are atrocious (I just bought one on my Christmas geek haul, the Haiku one), where there was more interest in the pictures loosely associated with the theme and not the gist of the content itself.  But, with these, they are framed appropriately for each page.

Of course the content is sublime.  These are the best of the best collections you could ask for.  It is not a difficult 'right' gift for anyone who likes to dip their toes into poetry or even general reading.  They look amazing on one's book shelf.

Available at Walmart, Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

...Five Pop Horror Short Story Anthologies I Tripped Over as a Child...

Where I survey collections of short stories and drift from the overly popular...

I dug deep into the way back machine for horror books that I read as a child.  I read everything.  Horror really had no particular appeal to me, as it was, and still is, not my schtick.  What did intrigue me with horror, and why I returned time and again, was the thrill of the craft.  Horror, as a genre, has to find that fine line between reality and insanity.  Too often do authors slip into the latter, borrowing little from the former, and you end up with a mess that cannot pretend to keep you interested.  But when it's good - it's thrilling.

The first foray that I remember was drifting from paranormal books, which is a natural interest, then lapsing into horror via mystery.  The first mystery stories I read in grade school were the ones that centered around a picture, then you had to figure out who the culprit was based on the combination of the graphic and the prompt.  It was a back door into a reading comprehension quiz.  But, not being a gifted problem solver, really, I appreciated the lengths of logic that threaded out to arrive at the resolution.

Before I could buy my own books, I had to find them at garage sales with my mother, or, if I was with my dad for a weekend, it would be at the used book shops near Huntington Beach.  There I discovered Alfred Hitchcock, before I had ever seen a movie or TV show, with his anthology series.  The most memorable was "Haunted Houseful".  There was also "Ghostly Gallery".  continued below...

Even in death you would have to imagine Alfred trying to
scare people as much as possible.

Short stories was a normal route for
early King.

Years later, while in the Army, I turned to Stephen King books, more than likely because the small library we had in the Menden (Germany) barracks, which was nothing more than a large room in the attic of the building, had very few popular fiction choices but King.  Luckily, I read Misery first, then moved on to his master work, The Shining.  Both were tremendous reads, but, I think many of us would easily consider Shining such an artful balance of character, pacing and story.  I read it twice while on a 'field problem' - where we had to spend at least a week or two in the field simulating a war exercise.  One night was particularly eerie while trying to get through it, as a wind storm blew through an old farmhouse we were sleeping in.  The attic was well over two hundred years old and full of dust.  Its dark corners wouldn't lighten up even in the day.

From there, and the purpose of this post was short story, so Different Seasons.  King's short stories are a hoot and, in his style, very quick and enjoyable.

Post-Army, when I could start buying my own books, I got into Clive Barker's shorts including In the Flesh.  Barker is much more of a sadist than King, infusing his stories to cringe-inducing effects.  However, it's when he lapses into the more subtle forms of horror do we feel that he understands this world very well.

In The Further Adventures of the Joker, which was a cross-over for me, as comics were a hot commodity from '88 through '95, of moving from graphic renditions of the Batman and Joker and to the written rendition.  Of note was a particular story where, as the Joker was a child, he would lure kids into the forest and leave them dying in a water tower.  Creepy stuff.

Lastly, and fairly recent, was an anthology of stories as part of The Twilight Zone.  These original stories were in the spirit of what Serling did best: stories that are in the transcendent, rarefied air.  Since I couldn't get enough Zone on television and probably watched each episode at least five times each, this anthology gave me 18 new stories to cull over.  Interesting take away wasn't so much the stories, but the forward.  It gives a brief story about Serling's Korean War experience that probably set the tone for his take on storytelling.  Fascinating stuff.  What will you read yourself this Halloween?

...addicted to the following...7 great comics on Comixology right now...

Comixology is a digital comic book reader and store that's been in place for a few years now.  For those not wholly addicted to paper, it's a tremendous resource.  The only drawback is that the resolution needs to deepen a bit, I'd prefer that as one of the few additions.  [And paper has its place, especially for the books we love of course.]

Morning Glories (Image) - I'm addicted to this surprise of a series.  The writing and art hit all the right notes, along with the elaborate story crafting of Nick Spencer and art by Joe Eisma.  Covers by Rodin Esquejo add the last touch of intrigue with each issue.  Generally the series can be described as a prep academy as "The Prisoner".  Six kids are taken to the mysterious and sadistic school and fight to stay alive, literally.  Not all is what it seems, since there are smart turns and shifts as to what forces are controlling the Morning Glory Academy.

Morning Glories #24

Mad Magazine (DC) - happy to see this very recent addition to the DC catalog.  When I was a tyke, Mad would publish one particular year with mini-magazines dedicated to the earliest issues.  They were not complete, but the level of thoughtful and whacked-out humor drew me into comics in general.  The flat comedic tone and striking images of the early Mad are something to behold.  Plus, the first issue is free right now!

Blue Estate (Image) - I'm really into Robert Valley's work right now.  The first exposure was with the Beatles' Rock Band cinematics - truly incredible concepts in lines and feel.  XBOX Dance Central's cinematics followed closely behind.  Then there was Tron Uprising and the upcoming Wonder Woman.  The only Comixology that has Valley's work is Blue Estate.  The story is fairly straightforward, but the hard lined visuals is what draws me in to this series.

Remains (IDW) - An almost by-the-numbers tale of survivors in Vegas.  However, Steve Niles and Kieron Dwyer craft more of a tale of what life would really be like when you are stuck with a person you barely tolerate but completely rely upon.  Was almost going to add the 'Remains' trailer, but the comics are so much better than the filmed adaptation.

Simpsons (Bongo) - not much to say that folks don't know, but the Simpsons as a comic book is an inventive and fresh take on the series that understands the comic book format as well as how to make things still funny.

Adventure Time (BOOM!) - probably already covered this one in another post, but AT is such a fresh take on the whole cartoon genre, that the foray into comics, and its success seem inevitable.  The richness is all graphical, since the story cannot be overly deep.  But the fun is terribly satisfying.

Before Watchman: Silk Spectre (DC) - probably with most of the comic populace, touching what is Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon's work fills me with dread as well: taking an artist's work and playing upon it, may it be in the form of revisionism or other dread form of 'update', is physically sickening.  But DC smelled money and went for it - the result is intriguing in the same way that revisioned movies are being done.  Most fail, some succeed, some transcend...the Before Watchman don't transcend the masterwork of the original, but they are a pale homage that proved engaging enough.  It's probably more fascinating that DC went for it and some artists either embraced or revolted - and here are their works.  But, honestly, Moore and Gibbon's place with the original are well established.

...a few to here, to date...18aug13

August is slipping away like satin through a soft hand.

- Jay-Z and Nikolai Czage break free of King Uros' castle in the latest installment of The Time Traveler H.O.V.A.
- Spent time on Filipino Cookbook today, I'm enjoying the way my protagonist's behave like gentlemen of a different time.
- Went through the entire blog history early this morning to pull  snippets of other stories to make sure they are captured:

WATTPAD:
- CHARLIE GUEST
- MISS KITTY
- PROCTOR ELECT
- NUMBERS GAME
- TIME TRAVELER H.O.V.A.

SCIENCE FICTION:
- TEH SEXEH BLASTER
- THE LAB
- BLUE  - io9.com writing prompt
- BUS STOP - io9.com writing prompt

FANTASY:
- PACE SHORT PIECE
- GHEYMOND FITZGERALD
- ARYNA of OEASTERN

MYTHOLOGICAL:
- CEYX AND ALCYONE

ROMANTICAL/ PICARESQUE:
- PERFECIA
- LATE 50s
- WICKED
- POISON
- SELFISH CREATURES
- THE NIGHT
- OVERBOARD

Thanks for visiting - I appreciate it greatly!

...Endymion...

"A thing of beauty is a joy forever..."

Keat's Endymion is full of youthful exuberance, the light of hope.  The full text of Keats' Endymion is available here: http://www.bartleby.com/126/32.html.