Fright Night

New Story at BEAT to a PULP

BEAT to a PULP :: Waking Up from the Big Sleep :: Paul Newman

Once Again, Texas Leads the Way

4 Houston-area prisons ban weekend visitors after virus | Houston & Texas News | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle: "A highly contagious stomach virus is sweeping through at least 16 state prisons, including Rosharon's Terrell Unit, where more than a third of inmates are reported ill.

State prison spokesman Jason Clark on Friday said Terrell is among four prisons in the Greater Houston area closed to weekend visitors."

James Mitchell, R. I. P.

Actor and Dancer James Mitchell Dead at 89 2010/01/23: "Actor and dancer James Mitchell who most notably played tycoon Palmer Cortlandt on the daytime soap opera 'All My Children' for more than 30 years has passed away at the age of 89.

While TV audiences will most likely associate Mitchell with his role on 'All My Children', Mitchell was also a professional dancer who danced in film musicals and acted in a slew of Broadway and regional productions. Mitchell's performing career began with the American Ballet Theatre. Mitchell had a long-standing collaboration with renowned choreographer Agnes de Mille working with her as dancer and assistant choreographer in various film and stage productions, including the Broadway productions of 'Bloomer Girl', 'Brigadoon' (for which he won the Theatre World Award), 'Paint your Wagon', 'Come Summer', and perhaps most notably in the 1955 film 'Oklahoma' where Mitchell starred as Dream Curly."

I, for One, Welcome Our New Canine Overlords

Moscow's Stray Dogs Evolving Greater Intelligence, Including a Mastery of the Subway | Popular Science: "For every 300 Muscovites, there's a stray dog wandering the streets of Russia's capital. And according to Andrei Poyarkov, a researcher at the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, the fierce pressure of urban living has driven the dogs to evolve wolf-like traits, increased intelligence, and even the ability to navigate the subway."

Spartacus: Blood and Sand

This isn't a review of the new mini-series, just a couple of comments that will tell you more about me than about the series. The reason it's not a review is that I didn't watch the show. Well, not all of it.

I'd been looking forward to this because I figured it had been too long since I'd seen a good sword-and-sandal epic, and this looked to be the real thing. Good advance reviews and such. So I tuned in. I knew I was in trouble right away because a notice flashed on the screen to let me know that the language, sensuality, and brutality I was about to see were simply a reflection of the times in which the show was set. I knew immediately that what the notice really meant was that I was about to see a whole lot of cussing, sex, and violence.

Sure enough, that's what I saw. Aside from one of the cheesiest farewell scenes ever filmed, that's all there was: blood, cussing, and sex. Since there wasn't much sex, it was mostly blood and cussing. I've never seen so much blood in such a short time. Sure, it was just CGI blood, but there was an ocean of it.

I'd read about the great "production values" of the series. My reaction to that was: "Huh?" How could anybody watch the first scene and talk about production values? Yikes. And then there's that farewell scene. See it to believe it.

I won't be seeing any more. After fifteen boring minutes, I turned off the set and picked up a book. The beautiful and classy Jean Simmons starred in the movie version of the Spartacus story, with Kirk Douglas and a host of others. I would have been better off to rent the DVD of that one than to watch Spartacus: Blood and Sand.

It's a Don's Life -- Mary Beard

Mary Beard is a professor of classics at Newham College, Cambridge, and she has a blog. Where she finds time to maintain it, I have no idea, since she's a very busy woman, considering all her academic responsibilities, not to mention that she's the classics editor of the Times Literary Supplement and does a lot of travel for research. The blog is full of interesting things related to the classics but also to modern life. So interesting, in fact that about three years worth of blog entries have been published in book for in It's a Don's Life.

Since I hadn't been keeping up with the blog, everything in the book was new to me, and it's all highly entertaining. It's the perfect book to have around when you want to read something short and interesting. A few examples: Was there a St. Valentine? What made the Romans laugh? (This entry includes jokes, of course.) Ten things you thought you know about the Romans, but didn't. And so on. Beard also includes some of the comments left on the blog.

As soon as you read the book, you'll most likely want to follow the blog. Check them both out.

I, for One, Welcome Our New Dwarf Croc Overloards

BBC News - Dwarf crocodiles in name training at Cheshire aquarium: "A pair of dwarf crocodiles can recognise their own names after training, a Cheshire aquarium claims.

The tiny reptiles, called Paleo and Suchus, are even learning when they are allowed to open their mouths, the Blue Planet Aquarium in Ellesmere Port says.

The programme has been successful with mammals but it is one of the first times it will be used on reptiles."

Top 10 Passions of Ancient Rome

"Top ten passions of Ancient Rome"

Jean Simmons, R. I. P.

Jean Simmons dies at 80; radiant beauty was known for stunning versatility - latimes.com: "Jean Simmons, a radiant British actress who as a teenager appeared opposite Laurence Olivier in 'Hamlet' and emerged a star whose career flourished in the 1950s and 1960s in such films as 'Guys and Dolls, 'Elmer Gantry' and 'Spartacus,' has died. She was 80.

Simmons, who won an Emmy Award for her role in the 1980s miniseries 'The Thorn Birds,' died Friday evening at her home in Santa Monica, said Judy Page, her agent. She had lung cancer."

Terror is a Man

I've Been Needing Some New Clothes

Rick Owens delivers apocalypse-ready collection - Yahoo! News: "American designer Rick Owens continued to plumb the depths of the dark side Friday, with a fall-winter 2010-2011 menswear collection of gender-bending, space age-y designs ready for the apocalypse.

Androgynous models with enviable cheekbones skulked down the catwalk in bulky, tie-waisted trenches in lacquered microfiber or wrinkly microfiber with stiff, standup necklines and drop-crotched harem pants. Some wore ribbed turtlenecks with knee-length flaps in the front and back, while others sported leather tank tops that left their backs bare."

Chupacabra Update

Positive ID for strange creature in Wise County |
Dallas - Fort Worth News | wfaa.com
| Local News: "The hairless creature was identified as a raccoon with a congenital defect."

Photos at the link. Sure doesn't look like a raccoon.

No Comment Department

Spice Girls: The Musical planned by creator of Mamma Mia! - Telegraph: "The creator of Mamma Mia! is developing a new musical based on the songs of the Spice Girls.

Viva Forever will feature the band's greatest hits and 'harness the distinct personality of the Spice Girls', according to Judy Craymer, the woman who turned Abba's back catalogue into an entertainment phenomenon."

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Once Again, Texas Leads the Way

Senior class photo prank spells trouble - Yahoo! News: "A spelling prank in a class photo for more than 600 seniors in the Houston area led to suspension of three students. Some students wore T-shirts spelling out 'CLASS' as part of 'Class of 2010' in a formal shot. But KHOU-TV reported in a later informal shot, students representing 'C' and 'L' moved from the front row, leaving behind an offensive three-letter word."

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Gator Update (Bungee Edition)

Conan Update

Momoa set for 'Conan' - Entertainment News, Players, Media - Variety: "Jason Momoa ('Stargate Atlantis') has been tapped to star in the reboot of 'Conan' for Nu Image/Millenium, Lionsgate and Paradox.

Production on the remake is expected to start in March in Bulgaria. Marcus Nispel will direct."

Florida Gothic Stories -- Vicki Hendricks

Is there any need for me to tell you that Vicki Hendricks had me at the cover of this collection of her stories? I didn't think so. But wait! There's more! Florida Gothic Stories includes the irresistible (for me) "Gators," with this great opening line: "It was a goddamned one-armed alligator put me over the line." Here's what I said about the story in my column for Mystery Scene: "It involves a one-armed gator and a one-armed woman, but they’re just for starters. The plot concerns a woman who wants to get rid of her good-for-nothing lout of a husband, permanently. She devises a clever plan for doing so, but things gang aft agley with plans like that, as we all know. I shall say no more except that this is a clever variation on a theme and that I didn’t know where it was going."

And speaking of great beginnings, the first page of "Stormy, Mon Amour" is guaranteed to grab your attention. Two words from me: Interspecies sex. I can say no more for fear of spoiling it for you.

"Sinny and the Prince" has identical twins and a femme very much fatale. A good twist, too. "The Big O" might not be what you're thinking, but it's got a heck of a storm and another good twist or two. And that's just, what? Four stories? There are seven other good ones in the book, some of which I'd read before but was happy to read again. Not that everybody in the stories is happy. Hardly anyone is. Hendricks writes about the doomed, the damned, and the despairing., and she does it wonderfully well. Sometimes, yes, sometimes she even gives a little glimmer of hope at the end.

Add to the stories a fine introductory essay by Megan Abbott and a nice closer by Michael Connelly, and you have a book that's more than worthy of your attention. Check it out.

Update: I should have mentioned that the book I have is an ARC. The book comes out in May. So check your local bookstores then. Or Amazon.

Old Salt :: Cover Story :: Philadelphia City Paper :: Philadelphia Events, Arts, Restaurants, Music, Movies, Jobs, Classifieds, Blogs: "The crystals and cinder-block-sized chunks of rock dug out of a cavernous salt mine in Michigan were really, really ancient, part of one of the oldest salt formations in the world. And Russell Vreeland knew that if those rocks contained any DNA, it too would be really, really old. What he found when he brought them back to the laboratory at West Chester University wasn't just old DNA; it was the oldest DNA ever discovered, clocking in at about 419 million years."

Hat tip to Jeff Segal.

Top Twelve Brainy Dogs

Plus the bottom five.

THE INTELLIGENCE OF DOGS