CircleCount helps you better understand Google+

2013-03-10 10:39:45 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

Another Cow has passed us by, and I want to say thanks to everyone who helped make it such a success.

Thanks, of course, to Neil Smith -- despite not actually being able to make it, he did almost all of the organisation ahead of time and made it very easy for James and I to turn up on the day and pretend we knew what we were doing!

Thanks to James Mullen for doing most of the organisation on the day! If all the public speaking had been up to me, we would still be there now as I stammered my way through the opening speech.

Thanks to Mike from Leisure Games for running the stall and providing lots of gamers with cool things to spend their money on!

Thanks to Mike, Simon Burley (Squadron UK), Phil Masters (Steve Jackson Games) and to Joe Sweeney (Dreamweaver Games) for their generous donations of raffle prizes!

Thanks to everyone who bought raffle tickets... more »

2013-03-08 11:08:32 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

One final reminder that Concrete Cow is tomorrow. Doors open at 09:00 and the first game slot starts at 10:00. Admission is still £5.
 
We now have 25 games on offer, so there will be no shortage of options to keep you amused.
 
See you tomorrow!

2013-01-04 15:14:07 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Somehow, despite the fact that the song came out 34 years ago, I never encountered Pretty Paracetamol, or Fischer-Z, for that matter, until last week. Spotify is helping me uncover all sorts of stuff that should have been part of my all along.

As I go through their back catalogue, Fischer-Z are proving to be an amalgamation of almost everything I like in music. They sound like a mash-up of Sparks, IQ, 10CC, Roxy Music, Magazine and The Specials, but somehow like none of these things. They also manage to feed my obsession for upbeat, catchy songs with odd, disturbing lyrics.

How the hell did I manage to miss them for all these years, and what else is there out there that feels like a missing part of my past?

Fisher Z- Pretty Paracetamol (first impressions)

2012-12-11 16:31:22 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20677515

Apparently being a foreign-born godless heathen who came to the UK 25 years ago makes me a trendsetter.

2012-12-09 13:59:36 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

Hi, everyone! I'm Scott and I run a lot of horror games at British conventions. I also do some RPG writing, and have published material for Dead of Night, Hot War, Jaws of the Six Serpents and Cthulhu Dark. Recently I've written some stuff for Call of Cthulhu and Trail of Cthulhu, which should see print next year, and I'm currently working on a number of other horror and dark fantasy projects.

2012-12-09 11:41:24 (6 comments, 1 reshares, 2 +1s)

I only just saw this bit of sad news from a couple of days ago:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-20640580

It must have been about 1983 that I discovered Hawkwind off the back of my then-growing Moorcock obsession. Over the next dozen years, I amassed a collection of some 40 of their albums and saw them live many times. Huw Lloyd Langton was their guitarist through most of this period (a long tenure for a band that changes members like most people change their socks) and it is still his sound I largely associate with the band.

Some time around 1990, I saw Lloyd Langton perform in the back room of a tiny pub in north London. The gig was just him and his guitar, and there can't have been more than a half-dozen of us in the audience. He kept stopping to ask if there was anything in particular we wanted to hear, and one audience member asked for Motorway City.... more »

2012-10-31 14:16:16 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

Forget ghoulies and ghosties and long-legged beasties; this is by far the most frightening thing I've seen this Halloween.

http://savileimages.tumblr.com/

2012-10-11 11:06:09 (29 comments, 1 reshares, 7 +1s)

Someone has repainted the concrete cows for Halloween, it seems. While the council is treating this as vandalism, I must say that I prefer the new look.

http://www.theparkstrust.com/about-us/media-centre/post/200-concrete-cows-damaged/

2012-10-10 22:01:49 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

Here's the next entry for the October Horror Movie Challenge.

This is the first of this month's films that I watched at the cinema, and I'm very glad that I did. Thanks to for the recommendation, and to for finding a local showing.

Day 10: Berberian Sound Studio

If you like nice, tidy films which explain exactly what is going on, you will hate Berberian Sound Studio. On the other hand, if you like ambiguity and working out your own interpretation of events, you may well enjoy it. Paul and I spent most of the 30 minute drive back from Northampton picking through the pieces, and I'm still finding new ways to look at various scenes.

Berberian Sound Studio tells the story of a British sound engineer who travels to Italy to work on a horror film. Almost all the action takes place in the dimly-lit sound studio, making for a very close,... more »

2012-10-10 18:08:38 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

Almost forgot yesterday's update for the October Horror Movie Challenge.

Day 9: The Devil Rides Out

There are a lot of reasons why I should like this film: it's a Hammer film from the period I love; the script was written my Richard Matheson; it stars Christopher Lee in a rare heroic role, and he brings a degree of gravitas that the film desperately needs; and the last act involves a showdown in a magic circle that is genuinely tense in places.

Of course, undermining all this is the fact that it's based on a Dennis Wheatley novel.

I went through a phase of reading Wheatley around 20 years ago, and found his books to be dull, predictable, badly-researched and generally silly. All of these aspects find their way through to The Devil Rides Out. Everything is portrayed in deadly earnest, but you will struggle not to laugh out loud at some of the... more »

2012-10-08 23:24:21 (7 comments, 0 reshares, 6 +1s)

I'm falling behind on updates for the October Horror Move Challenge. Time to rectify this.

Day 6: The Reptile

This was the bookend to the previous day's Plague of the Zombies, having been shot back-to-back with it, and sharing a director, sets and some of the cast.

My memories of reading the novelisation as a kid had left me expecting something like a werewolf movie, but with scales. The Reptile turned out to be weirder than that, with some quite startling and unnerving scenes and images. It's one of the least cosy Hammer films I can remember.

My one complaint is that the premise struck me as being extremely similar to The Ghoul, another film of the era, and IMdb tells me that they were both written by Anthony Hinds; apparently he believed in recycling.

All in all, another fun bit of nostalgia.

Day 7: Needle
... more »

2012-10-06 01:45:12 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

The October Horror Movie Challenge Continues.

Day 5: Plague of the Zombies

I grew up watching Hammer films, and in many ways they formed my mental template for what a horror movie should be. Over the years, I saw and loved most of their output, but somehow I'd never got around to watching Plague of the Zombies until today.

This is a classic Hammer film in all respects. It has well-spoken British people fighting supernatural menaces with stiff upper lips and an odd combination of scepticism and religion. It's also a rare zombie film that revolves around the voodoo variety of zombie as opposed to Romero's flesh eaters.

Apart from the oddness of a voodoo cult in Cornwall, this is a film of cosy familiarity that won't scare or challenge any modern viewer. It is still good, daft fun, and a reminder that they really don't make them like that... more »

2012-10-05 14:11:18 (6 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

It's been too many years since I read more than the occasional Clark Ashton Smith story, but now that I have all the volumes of the Night Shade Press collection, it's time to revisit them.

The first book opens with this lovely little prose poem, which sums up in a couple of paragraphs why I loved Smith's work so much when I was younger. I hope the stories are as strange and beautiful as I remember.

To the Daemon

Tell me many tales, O benign maleficent daemon, but tell me none that I have ever heard or have even dreamt of otherwise than obscurely or infrequently. Nay, tell me not of anything that lies between the bourns of time or the limits of space: for I am a little weary of all recorded years and charted lands; and the isles that are westward of Cathay, and the sunset realms of Ind, are not remote enough to be made the abiding-place of my conceptions;... more »

2012-10-05 11:14:23 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

When +Jeff Zahari posted a Hunters and Collectors video last month, it reminded me how much I love Throw Your Arms Around Me. My introduction to the song came from the Doug Anthony All Stars, who used to cover it during cabaret performances in the early 1990s.

DAAS - Throw Your Arms Around Me

I'm pretty sure that I was in the audience when they recorded this. Good times.

Be warned that if you follow the links to some of their other songs, they tend to be very rude and NSFW.

2012-10-04 23:28:24 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

Lack of sleep and the start of a cold have left me without energy today, so I slumped in front of the TV and watched two films for the October Horror Move Challenge.

Day 4: Tucker and Dale Vs Evil

I watched the first 20 minutes of this a few months ago and decided I wasn't really in the mood for it at the time, so the challenge seemed like the perfect excuse to revisit it.

The start still didn't really spark for me, as I found the comedy of the first few scenes more embarrassing and awkward than funny. Once it gathered momentum it turned out to be one of the most enjoyable horror comedies I've seen. Plenty of laughs and gore all round. I'm glad I gave it another try.

Day 4.5: Stagefright

If yesterday's The Blood Spattered Bride was the essence of seventies European horror, Stagefright is the essence of the eighties. It... more »

2012-10-04 00:01:03 (7 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

Day three of the October Horror Movie Challenge, and three films down. Time to talk a bit about them, I suppose.

Day 1: Night of the Eagle

I read Fritz Leiber's novel Conjure Wife last month, and remembered shortly after that there was a film of it. Well, it turns out that there are three films, but Night of the Eagle is the best known.

The story follows the misfortunes that befall a university lecturer after he discovers that his wife has been practising a form of witchcraft and he convinces her to give it up as silly superstition. Of course, it turns out, her silly superstition was all that was protecting them from all manner of evils, and their world begins to fall apart in terrifying ways.

The film is a moderately faithful adaptation, albeit quite simplified to fit it all in 90 minutes. Given that it's a black-and-white film with no special... more »

2012-10-03 20:22:17 (18 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

Inspired by +Renee Knipe's October Horror Movie Challenge, I'm trying to find time to watch a horror film every day, ideally ones I haven't seen yet. It's giving me an excuse to work through some of my unwatched DVDs. This pile may see me through most of it.

2012-09-28 23:55:14 (12 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

When it gets to this time of night, and sleep is still hiding in the dark corners of the room, only Current 93 can fill the silence adequately.

Current 93 - The Bloodbells Chime

2012-09-27 12:49:21 (24 comments, 0 reshares, 6 +1s)

Here's a nice counterpoint to all the complaints about British English becoming Americanised. It's something I've noticed more of recently, and it's pleasing to see that the exchange of language goes both ways.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19670686

2012-09-17 20:08:42 (8 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

No matter how many times I watch this video, it always makes me smile.

This may not be an entirely healthy reaction.

The Mountain Goats - This Year (Video)

2012-09-11 11:55:14 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 8 +1s)

Here's a huge collection of horror movie posters from Thailand, mostly for non-Thai films. It's delightful how many of the posters are even more lurid and entertaining than the films themselves.

http://monsterbrains.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/thai-film-posters.html

2012-08-13 19:04:46 (9 comments, 1 reshares, 3 +1s)

The Guardian style guide is turning out to be very entertaining reading. You can almost hear the note of exasperation in some of the entries.

Another gem came under the heading berks and wankers:

Kingsley Amis identified two principal groups in debates over use of language: "Berks are careless, coarse, crass, gross and of what anybody would agree is a lower social class than one's own; wankers are prissy, fussy, priggish, prim and of what they would probably misrepresent as a higher social class than one's own."

And I've just discovered that the style guide is available free on the Guardian website: http://www.guardian.co.uk/styleguide

2012-08-13 11:36:56 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

I was flicking through the Guardian style guide this morning and was tickled by the entry for the apostrofly. They define it as an insect that lands at random on the printed page, leaving an apostrophe behind wherever it alights.

I wonder if I can train my cat's to eat them.

Bugger. Too late.

2012-08-09 22:26:42 (6 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

My copy of The Woman Who Married a Cloud turned up today. It's a near-complete collection of the short fiction of Jonathan Carroll, containing a number of stories I have come across in other publications, but with which I am looking forward to reacquainting myself, and a fair few that I have not read yet. I am genuinely excited.
 
Jonathan Carroll has been my favourite writer since I found a remaindered copy of A Child Across the Sky in a bookshop in Wimbledon a little over twenty years ago. Before the dominance of Internet shopping, it seemed like the only ways to find Carroll's books in the UK were either in remainder bins or as very expensive rarities from specialist booksellers. His work couldn't seem to find a mass audience, but those who had encountered him became devoted fans and collectors. He is better known now, but he has still never seemed to achieve the popularity he... more »

2012-07-25 20:31:07 (19 comments, 6 reshares, 11 +1s)

I've seen a few misconceptions about the proposed new Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition rules, and thought that I'd take some time to address them. I'm not speaking from any position of authority, but I have playtested them for a few years, both as a player and GM.

1) It's not Call of Cthulhu any more

I've seen a few people decide that because of the changes to skills, Luck and combat, this new version is either overly pulpy or a story-telling game of some description. In practice it plays much like earlier versions, but just a bit faster and with some more intensity. Combat is as brutal and deadly as ever, but you no longer have rounds of nothing happening because everyone missed.

2) There are mechanics to allow players to take control of the story

Nope. The closest thing to this is Connections, which are things the character holds... more »

2012-07-19 11:24:40 (8 comments, 3 reshares, 7 +1s)

http://www.rafaelchandler.com/blogger/?tag=hexcommunicated

I finished reading +Rafael Chandler's  novel Hexcommunicated last night. While I don’t know Rafael personally, I have chatted with him a bit online and have come to the conclusion that he is an all-round good bloke. As a result, I was prepared to say vague and noncommittal things about his book if I found it disappointing. It’s a huge relief not to have to do that.

The book itself is, appropriately, a Frankenstein’s monster of genres. It is part techno-thriller, part urban fantasy and part Lovecraftian horror, with plenty of bloody action and black humour. It follows the misadventures of Agent Tepes, a wise-cracking cybernetically-enhanced former soldier, as he is drawn into webs of conspiracy and betrayal involving the black ops programme that built him.

Tepes is not the only product of this programme.The co... more »

2012-07-12 21:53:53 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

A bouncy little something to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first Rolling Stones gig.

Psychic TV - Godstar

2012-07-11 10:54:32 (6 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

I've just reached the point in Hexcommunicated, +Rafael Chandler's wildly-entertaining first novel, where a character with my name appears only to have his brains blown out within a paragraph. Nice!

I'll write more when I've finished the book. It shouldn't be too long, as it's a fast-paced beast.

2012-07-09 19:44:32 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

Lovecraft - Mudman's Brunchday

I stumbled across this video while searching for Lovecraftian shorts on YouTube, and now I can't stop watching the damn thing. Be warned, it contains gore, partial nudity and cannibalism, but only in a cheery way.

2012-07-05 12:26:38 (12 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

While I've developed a bit of a taste for urban fantasy, I like it dark. The cancellation of Harry Connolly's excellent Twenty Palaces still saddens and frustrates me. The wait for the sixth book of Mike Carey's Felix Castor series is getting worrying, as it's a year late and there's no news. I hope it hasn't been cancelled as well, as not only are the the previous books hugely entertaining, but this was supposed to the the book which explained what the hell had been going on.

Happily, the maddening itch caused by their absence has been brutally scratched by Richard Kadrey's Sandman Slim novels. The series comes from the noirish, unromantic end of the urban fantasy genre. They're profane, violent and sardonic, and exactly what I feel like reading at the moment.

The series follows the exploits of Stark, a magician betrayed by his friends and sent bodily... more »

2012-06-19 11:05:19 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sal%C3%B2,_or_the_120_Days_of_Sodom  
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have now watched 99 out of Time Out's 100 best horror films. My plan is to watch the last film this week, but I'm dragging my heels a bit. The simple truth is that I'm not sure if I actually want to watch it.
 
The film in question is Salò, Pier Paolo Pasolini's infamous adaptation of de Sade's 120 Days of Sodom. I have had the DVD on my shelf for several years, but every time I go through my unwatched films, I seem to skip past it.
 
I have seen a number of Pasolini's other films and enjoyed them hugely. His 'Trilogy of Life', comprised of his adaptations of The Decameron, The Canterbury Tales and The Arabian Nights, is beautiful, earthy and naturalistic, filled with a reality I have seen in few other films. And this is part of my reluctanceto ... more »

2012-06-18 11:51:38 (9 comments, 3 reshares, 5 +1s)

http://www.timeout.com/london/feature/2482/100-best-horror-films-the-full-list  
Over the last few weeks, I've been catching up with the handful of the Time Out 100 best horror films that I had not already seen.  There is only one left to go now, and I should have a chance to watch it this week. Although this is really quite a trivial thing, it feels like a milestone. Horror films have been an important part of my life for as long as I can remember.

When I was eight years old, my father bought me a copy of Dennis Gifford's book, A Pictorial History of Horror Movies. I had inherited my father's love of films -- he was a film critic for Radio Hong Kong and the co-founder of the Studio One cinema club in HK -- and cinema was the main interest we shared throughout his life. Even at that age, my tastes had started tending to the macabre, and the Gifford book cemented that. Itq... more »