Dare to touch her, and Death smiles.
(Illustration by SF artist Virgil Finlay)
Dare to touch her, and Death smiles.
(Illustration by SF artist Virgil Finlay)
Uhhh… Casey Kasem was in this? Well, he was the voice of Shaggy in Scooby-Doo…
B-movies have long been with us, but after the deregulation of the Hollywood production code in the 1960s, the gateway was open for all sorts of lurid, sensational content. Happily it also coincided with the counterculture, and the two produced plenty of classics. The subject matter (and titles) even inspired more mainstream filmmakers, like Peter Sellers’ The Party and I Love You, Alice B. Toklas (Sellers was also a notorious experimenter of LSD.)
Itching for a title for a 1960s exploitation film that never was? Look no more.
Cheerleader Gangbang
The Strawberry Rebels The Jolly Good Guru Plasticine Tigress Shhh, it’s Only Us Kids Vixen in a Rug Shaggy in the Streets Spy in a Bedsheet Chelsea Hoodlum The Tangerine Trip The Wild Heiress What’s Up, Freaks? |
Peppermint Tiger
Velvet Caravan The Aquarian Teens Easy Switchblade Teacher in a Miniskirt Barefoot in the Underground Yesterday’s Revolutionary Operation Dallas-a-go-go The Reefer Murders Ski Bum in a Spacesuit Swedish Wives The Motorcycle Game |
Love Robot Bug-Out! Deadly Hot Rods from Venus! See it now… and prepared to be turned on, at the… …LAST PARTY IN THE WORLD! (cue wild pseudo-acid rock music) |
We were scared. You put us into space anyway, where we died. Shame on you.
(Book Art by Ekaterina Panikanova)
When I think of nouveau cuisine, I think of small items of food on very large large plates.
Of course there’s more to it than that. Such as an emphasis on freshness and natural ingredients, aesthetic presentation, and novel food combinations. Unlike classical French cooking, there are no heavy sauces and complicated preparation. The portions are small. It’s designed to be a feast for all the senses, not just one or two.
Are your characters headed to some pretentious new five-star restaurant in town? Here are some ideas for what they might eat.
Pierogis of smoked shark simmered in zucchini broth flavored with lime.
Fresh salad of cold sliced halibut cheeks, spinach, brown rice, and taro root, with a creamy pepper dressing. Japanese king salmon served on a poached bun, slathered with a yogurt and lentil relish. Pressed duck sandwich presented with anise mayonnaise and slivered cucumbers. Roasted scallop sandwich wraps with kale chutney. Llama jerky and polenta with a spicy green curry sauce. Fresh tuna simmered with squid ink and fleur-de-sal. Partridge roasted on a cedar plank with brown rice biscuits. Bratwurst of ground headcheese baked in organic sauerkraut. Lobster flesh glazed with a whiskey-honey marinade and served with pickled artichoke hearts. Scrambled Muscovy duck eggs with New Zealand organic lamb sausages and brown rice/buckwheat pancakes. Peruvian paprika-seared duckling, served with diced cucumbers and cellophane noodles topped with ground bone marrow. Lemongrass-infused pork liver deep-fried to perfection. Grilled lamb slathered with truffle oil. Roast turkey stuffed with veal medallions, Amish oysters, and pickled figs. |
Let’s plug into a good night’s sleep!
Not a lot seems to happen in the American Heartland, even in the U.S.A. of an alternate world. The exception is the world of Star Trek, where Captain James T. Kirk (remember the T stands for Tiberius) is stated in canon to have been born in “a small town in Iowa.” When the series was cancelled and Trekkies started to become a thing in the 1970s, one small town proclaimed itself to be that very one! The evidence is above. Note also that Kirk is an Aries, the first sign of the zodiac and the one most associated with leadership! **
Kirk’s past was not shown on the original Star Trek series, but in the new movie franchise, he is shown as a young man racing through the cornfields as giant starships under construction loom in the background. The impression given is that the state is now vitally important to mankind’s future.
Need some names for Midwest states that might have been?
Oklahoma
Oklanitha Osloroma Aklahopa Okkuola Elkahoya Iklawoma Ondahoca |
Nebraska
Sheveska Neyaska Nebrastrud Nebrahull Netrohart Megoska Neyaska |
Iowa
Oula Iobru Ioma Aiwa Oewa Iorha Iochra |
Kansas
Chansas Kansam Keddakh Kanthas Kansaber Kefrel Kamkes |
** This was actor William Shatner’s birthday.
by Alexandra Horowitz
New York, Scribner, 2016
[Challenge # 9: A book with a dog on the cover.]
Since I enjoyed Alexandra Horowitz’s first book, Inside a Dog, for its insights into the canines we share our lives with, I picked up Being a Dog: Following the Dog into a World of Smell for more of the same. It didn’t disappoint, but I did find it slightly less endearing and more overwritten than the previous book. I still enjoyed it, however. It’s about the physics of how dogs smell, how dogs are trained to use that sense to find or track, and how people — including the author — can also their noses to smell as well, for example as in the perfume and wine industries.
The people/dogs connection didn’t dovetail 100%, but it was fascinating. My favorite parts of the book were when the author visited a training center for sniffing dogs and we got to see how they eased into rescue and detective work starting at puppyhood.
What I did find annoying about the book was the Sunday magazine tone. I don’t think we really needed to know exactly what the various experts were wearing and how they presented themselves to ingest what they were telling us. The focus should have been on the dogs.
For human beings, the book did bring a valid point. We really don’t smell the world as a dog does. Every once in a while during the day a distinctive smell reaches us and we take note: wood burning, fresh baked cinnamon rolls, someone’s bad breath. But most of the time we don’t notice, because it is not necessary for our survival. Our olfactory systems too shut down a smell we are in the constant present of. But when we train ourselves to sniff at random times, it’s surprising how much we can sense. Almost as interesting as the dog training parts were the people training parts. As it turns out humans don’t have a vocabulary to describe smells, partly because, like the description of colors, it’s very subjective.
Now I find myself sniffing at random times throughout the day, just to see what’s out there.
Don’t you hate when that happens?
by Kameron Hurley
Tor, 2016
Kameron Hurley is one of a new generation of feminist SFF writers who began to publish in the 2010s, when social media began is phase of near-ubiquitousness, a cornucopia of hype, much of a geek-related. By geek I mean SFF in its many media — games, fanfic, fiction, movies, and reviews of those media. It’s a situation similar to the old Pohl Anderson story the “Man Who Ate the World” where manufacturing has become so cheap and widespread citizens must consume a certain amount of goods every day so the system doesn’t collapse. (The problem in the story comes from a man who is driven to consume too much, causing power blackouts.) I think we are living in that kind of world today, where media of all sorts is constantly clamoring for our consumption and being publicized and touted by other consumers, making yet more media.
But Hurley navigates this web with ease. Her essays, of which this is a collection, are about the intersection of feminism with this riotous tumult, ranging from Anita Sarkeesian and Gamergate to the Sad Puppys/Hugo Awards debacle of 2015. There is also much written about the depiction of women in media, and the issues that come with being an outspoken women in media. And make no mistake, in 2019 media depictions of women are still problematic in many ways.
Her essays are very readable and move along breezily, influenced by her advertising work. Her most tweeted and linked essay, “We Have Always Fought,” which one a Hugo award, discusses the role of women in war, giving lie to the notion we were just passive homebodies waiting at home to be raped or the menfolk to come home. There is so much SFF fiction written even today that still shoves women into a passive role, not to mention the books that are still out there written in previous years that are still being read. It is food for thought and I think every SFF writer should read it.
The essays referring to recent events in the SFF world are worth reading also if you have only a tangential memory of them. Time passes at lightspeed on the internets and it’s easy to forget or overlook; these events are also referred to in the present which also happens at lightspeed, so they were a good overview of the situation(s).
Hurley also writes about the art of writing itself, and the decisions to inculcate, or not inculcate, the attitudes of The Biz. Frankly I’d say. And these are worth reading also.
She does get a too personal and drumbeating at times, particularly in an essay where she mentions a grandmother living under the Nazis (my dad killed Nazis) and an abusive relationship when younger (my ex-husband tried to kill me) that, though meant well, might not resonate with everyone. It depends on one’s age; the author is at least 20 years younger than I. On the other hand, an essay about being hospitalized in a coma, and awakening to find one is suffering from diabetes, is a very good indictment of the American Health System and an unspoken commentary on the nature of American work, where one must keep a job, no matter how vile, to ensure health insurance simply for one’s survival.
The writer also has interesting things to say about 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road movie and its feminist aspect. I am reading Richard Morgan’s problematic grimdark fantasy The Cold Commands now and I would dearly love to hear what this author says about that. I think it’s so patently offensive and overly trope-twisting it’s hilarious, but like feminist author Suzy McKee Charnas’ Walk to the Ends of The World, which is anti-female grimdark as harsh it comes, might it mean something more?
Hurley also writes about her fascination with woman as strong, silent loner characters, like the male protagonist of the 1980s movies she grew up on, the Bruce Willises and Patrick Swayzes. It’s something I don’t personally relate to, yet she makes a case for them, and I enjoyed getting a secret peak into her character fetish, as it were.
Five stars and recommended.