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Sidney Sime and Call of Kafka
Why had I never heard of Sidney Sime before? This is the sort of work that makes me think the late 19th century romantics and decadents were much more unsettling than any Shock of the New.
BTW that's Don Kenn on the header, who's also brilliant. The combination of the two kinda bridges the gap between Edward Gorey and Aubrey Beardsley in my mind's ( Read more... ) -
Architects of Mars
If Lord of the Rings is secretly a book about landscape, ERB’s Barsoom stories are secretly about architecture.
Full post over here, if you like that sort of thing.
Sorry I've been absent. It's busytimes. Still, I found out about Russian group Voina and their chicken-stuffing antics, saw the Hobbit trailer and the xkcd comic that's got people talking ( Read more... ) -
I went to Corsica and all I brought back were these wine reviews
Some recent activity at richarddrinks: Nolet's silver gin, a couple of cocktails using Amer Picon and some Corsican wine that's hard to get in the US.
It's a pain that Corsican wine is so hard to find, because on Corsica it's generally great value, exemplary but not astonishing, French wine, which would do really well on the international market.
I ( Read more... ) -
some places I've been recently
First, more or less real: the caves of Dordogne (which make great grist for your roleplaying mill).
Second, more or less imaginary: Property Listings for my Tartary game (which you could use as a tour guide to interesting real-world destinations).
This last was written in response to Jason Kielbasa's Constantcon Property Guide. Constantcon is the ( Read more... ) -
How mainstream is Lovecraft these days?
Really damn mainstream, it seems.
Exhibit A, from 2010, when st_rev pointed it out: Scooby-doo: Mystery Incorporated. Which, by the way, has shaped up into a bona fide Laws-n-Tynes Over The Edge sorta eldritch mystery campaign, almost exactly like the ones I used to play in the 90s.
Exhibit B, 2012: some British sketch comedy show. Not very funny, but ( Read more... ) -
Only write what you care about
What is the point of me linking Zak’s blog, since you all read it anyway (right?)?
Because hidden away in a review of weird fiction is the best advice I’ve read since “don’t bother with art that’s trying to look like art”:
I just have to put the best of what I have to offer and nothing else out there by itself and see what kind of story it is. And if ( Read more... ) -
linkorama of old school roleplaying
because I've been hiding under a rock for the past 25 years, DnD-wise, I had no idea that Githyanki had become a thing (I did have an idea about dark elves, because you can't avoid them, but still, the name Drizzt meant nothing to me).
Anyway, shorn of the reams of lore they have no doubt accumulated, this is pretty much what I think about the ( Read more... ) -
Sky Men, a cloudwalking race for Tartary and beyond
Sky men are a proud and high-spirited people: they will not bear ill-usage. They are fond of adventures, emigration, and capable of undertaking the most dangerous enterprises.
( Read more... ) -
Cthulhufunk The Next Generation
Apparently there's a new stage version of Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds currently touring the UK. It has/shortly will have 3 recorded Liam Neesons in it, at the scales Normal, XL and WTF.
I... dunno. Turns out that is not dead which may eternally be remade. -
If you like Carcosa Wacky Races...
this guy should be right up your alley. Yes, I've seen a bunch of crazy mutation tables before, too. But I love every single entry on this list, and nothing more than:
Devil Organ: You grow a new internal organ the size of a fist, which is shaped like a devil in the lotus position. All devils and demons within 10' feet can smell it in you, or 30' if ( Read more... )