Loompanics was your go-to one-stop shop for ‘grey area’ and ‘very black indeed area’ books for thirty years. At this risk of this sounding like one of those cataract-viewed pieces which suggest everything in the old days was better, pre-internet, to find out anything beyond the mainstream, whether it be weird films, bootlegged music, or […]
Not the most obvious subject when considering a picture book for children but, yes, it happened – a book for juveniles all about Joseph Carey Merrick, The Elephant Man. First published by Allison & Busby in 1983, the book is written by Michael Howell and Peter Ford and is illustrated by Robert Geary. The early […]
The Usborne Guide to the Supernatural World was first published in 1979 and comprised three smaller, separately published books by Usborne, all under the ‘Supernatural Guides’ banner; ‘Haunted Houses, Ghosts and Spectres’; ‘Mysterious Powers and Strange Forces’; ‘Vampires, Werewolves and Demons’. They were written and edited by: Eric Maple -born in 1916, Maple was an […]
In 1984, The New York Times reported on the release of a set of recordings which by any standards were historic. Away from MTV, stadium rock tours, 12″ remixes and Band Aid, seventeen tracks made their way into the public realm, having previously existed scattered across classical collections of choral music, stamped on brittle shellac […]
When choosing a musical instrument to learn to play when the opportunity comes around at school, there are several factors which may influence a child. Primarily, this will be, “What are my mates choosing?” – leading to gaggles of violinists, much to the chagrin of their families. Others may be swayed by the flashy gleam […]
I recently watched ‘Evil Dead Rise‘, a film so bad that I believe I may be the only person outside of cartoons to have had random punctuation spill out of their mouth. Amongst the inexplicable awfulness was a particularly bad score by Stephen McKeon, one so lazy and bereft of invention that I’m amazed anyone […]
Two handy guides for you if you happen to have an interest in being a werewolf. Relatively straightforward, I’d say, indeed with a certain amount of ejaculating in public required, some of you may well be ahead of the game. Lycanthropy: A Handbook of Werewolfism by Frater D. Preliminary Exercises Before we get into the […]
The Mad, Sad World of the Boutique Blu-Ray There’s a recently released study which suggests 50% of US vinyl buyers don’t have a turntable to play them on. This study is wheeled out every year, but it’s a fun one that causes much teeth-grinding from many record-playing purists, and a nervous defence from those practising […]
It has been just under 25 years since the band Tad split up. Their final single, ‘Oppenheimer’s Pretty Nightmare‘, was released in 1999, and a collection of latter-day recordings and errant stray tracks, ‘Quick and Dirty‘ appeared in 2018. Since then, Tad (the man) formed the band Hog Molly, releasing one album, ‘Kung-Fu Cocktail Grip‘ […]
