calliopes_pen: (lost_spook John Seward frets)
2022-01-10 10:49 am

Rest In Peace

I’m going in the order in which these five died or were announced. I ran out of space in the post title, or I would have included all of them up there, too.

Rest in peace, Dr. Elizabeth Miller. She passed away peacefully on January 2nd, at the age of 82. She will be missed. If you haven’t heard of her, she was into the academic side of everything that involved Dracula, as well as Bram Stoker. I hunted down and devoured her published works back in the late 90’s and very early 2000s, and was thrilled by the fact she wrote the foreword for Lord of the Vampires, by Jeanne Kalogridis, back in 1996.

She won two Lord Ruthven awards for her work, and was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Dracula Society in 2012.

Via Vampires.com, which was quoting her obituary: “Between 1997 and 2012 she wrote or edited and published seven books on Dracula, the latter, entitled The Lost Journal of Bram Stoker, on which her co-editor was Dacre Stoker, grand-nephew of Bram Stoker. She was also the impetus behind 20-plus articles on aspects of Stoker and Dracula; she delivered lectures at universities, learned studies, conferences, ballet productions and private functions, as well as becoming involved in several television documentaries and scores of newspaper and magazine articles on the two.”

Sidney Poitier passed away on January 6th, at the age of 94. May he rest in peace. Unfortunately, I am not acquainted with any of his works, so I’ll need to rectify that shortly. Tubi has They Call Me Mr. Tibbs, as well as Lilies of the Field, so I’ll start there with his filmography.

Peter Bogdanovich passed away on January 6th, at the age of 82, due to complications from Parkinson’s disease May he rest in peace. I was previously only familiar with his work thanks to him directing Targets (1968), which was one of Boris Karloff’s final films. However, last night I watched The Cat’s Meow (2001) on Tubi.

Dwayne Hickman passed away yesterday, at the age of 87, due to complications from Parkinson’s disease. I used to watch so much of The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, when the series was rerun on Nick At Nite back in the 1980’s. Thanks to the presence of Vincent Price, I had actually already seen him in Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (1965). Until I consulted his filmography, though, I wasn’t aware that he had directed three episodes of Designing Women, too.

Bob Saget has passed away at the age of 65. May he rest in peace. I loved America’s Funniest Home Videos back when it was first starting out, probably when I was around the age of 8 or 9. I drifted away from it, though I did also watch Full House for a very brief period of time.

Looking through his filmography, I had forgotten that he was in an episode of The Greatest American Hero, back in 1983; I watched that particular episode a few weeks back on Heroes And Icons. He was also the voice of the future Ted in How I Met Your Mother, throughout the duration of the series.
calliopes_pen: (sallymn dark and stormy story)
2018-01-01 05:54 pm

The Yuletide 2017 Fanfic Commentary Post

Beneath the cut, you will find the behind the scenes notes for my Yuletide story. It's a bit long. )

If there is anything that wasn't answered by the above, feel free to ask in the comments. Deleted scenes will be posted tomorrow, and afterwards I'll link back to everything in the end notes of the Ao3 upload.

calliopes_pen: (lost_spook Lucy's throat Dracula's ring)
2017-02-20 08:06 am

Powers of Darkness: The Lost Version of Dracula

So as promised, I read Powers of Darkness, by Valdimar Ásmundsson, and translated by Hans De Roos (which he accomplished with the help of many, many others, based on the credited people in the end of the book) and basically catalogued all the differences I could catch between what was formerly known as Makt Myrkranna, and the Stoker version.

Beneath the cut, you will find the long list of differences, and little things I noticed. )

calliopes_pen: (magicmachine Delorean TARDIS crash)
2012-12-18 01:41 pm

Fannish Items of Interest

Two days to go before the Yuletide deadline.

Season’s Greetings From Satellite News.

University of Chicago’s Indiana Jones Mystery Solved.

Iron Man—Bad Days—Episode 11.

Steven Moffat on Radio 2, discussion The Snowmen.

Being Human (UK Version) DVD News: Box Art and Extras For Season 4 on DVD and Blu-Ray.

1958 The Blob Gets A Criterion Blu-Ray Release.

10 remarkable things about Santa Claus Conquers The Martians.

Terry Gilliam tribute on Fringe.

Skeletor’s Feliz Navidad.

Empire’s James Bond Travel Map.

Sherlock Holmes 3 Update From Producer Dan Lin.

Benedict Cumberbatch on the future of Sherlock.

From Cracked: 6 Mind-Blowing Archeological Discoveries Destroyed by Idiocy

Kyle Roberts Recreates Classic X-Men Cartoon Intro In Stop Motion.

There was almost a film version of Luke Cage directed by Quentin Tarantino with Laurence Fisburne starring.

Fantastic Fangirls Q&A #184: How does a favorite comic book character mark the winter holidays?

The Witch-King Rules This Swing Set.

Pulled Haven Episode Rescheduled For January.

Lost Bram Stoker Short Stories See The Light of Day.

Nobody is going to the funeral, because everyone is a little too sick to make it out there. Everyone has a massively bad cold that includes sore/scratchy throats in addition to the coughing (or inability to speak at all, if you’re Mom) in its bag of tricks. We don’t want to spread it, so we’re not going. We’re just trying to stay hydrated. Donna understands, since she has it, too.

Tomorrow, it’s the dentist for me.
calliopes_pen: (chomiji TARDIS Yuletide snow)
2012-11-21 02:04 pm

Fannish Items of Interest

Paypal Bans Usenet Providers Over Piracy Concerns.

Remember the Lovecraftian horror that was Windows 95 with a new Tumblr.

Mythical Beasts Retro Travel Posters.

Zack Snyder Confirms Man of Steel Trailer With The Hobbit.

First look at evil goateed Zachary Quinto Spock.

Catching Up With LeVar Burton, Part 1. Part 2.

20th Century Fox Cancels Independence Day 3D Plans.

Animaniacs Joins The Hub This December.

Zombie Nutcracker

Here’s the full length trailer for Jack The Giant Slayer.

Trailers From Hell: Joe Dante on Teenage Monster

Spider-Man’s 10 Biggest Status Quo Changes.

P:R Approved: Wesley Burt’s Thor

Victoria Winters by Bill Branch.

Interview: Geoff Johns Talks Aquaman, Justice League and Throne of Atlantis.

Libraries: Cathedrals To Our Souls.

843 Holiday Specials, Episodes, Movies and Marathons on TV for November 2012.

From Cracked: 5 Grimm Fairy Tales You Should Only Read To Kids You Hate.

The Hobbit: Q&A With Royd Tolkien.

Cocktails With Stan Lee, Season 2 Episode 12: Cara Santa Maria.

Vampires 101: Transylvania.

Two New Guest Stars Announced For The Vampire Diaries Season 4.

The 5 Worst and 5 Best Elseworld Origin Stories With Superman.

35 Comic Book Covers Celebrating Thanksgiving.

DC Histories: Batman Intercompany Crossovers.

Illustrated Collection of Famous Movie, TV, Comic, and Gaming Weapons.

Stay Puft Peruvian Beanie.

Five Things About The Making of Psycho That You Won’t See In Hitchcock.

7 Things You Didn’t Know About Star Trek: The Animated Series.

A New Buffy Book, Just In Time For The Holidays: A Nancy Holder Interview.

Junk Food Dinner’s 400th Movie Will Be Transformers: The Movie.

Sofa Dogs Podcast #264: Spider-Man 2 (2004)

Now Playing Podcast: Quantum of Solace (2008)

Comic Issues Podcast #93: The Great Cosplay Debate.

Horror Etc Podcast, Episode 275: What We’ve Been Watching 7.

This Yuletide fanfic may just be the longest fanfic I’ve ever written. Before I make sure everything’s done and there aren’t any lingering continuity issues tucked away somewhere, it’s at 7723 words.
calliopes_pen: (rosiemoon sneaky geek)
2012-11-09 03:32 pm

Fannish Items of Interest

Nestle recalls Nesquik chocolate mix because of salmonella risk

Sony Entertainment Head Steps Down

5 Dracula Spoofs To Celebrate Bram Stoker’s Birthday.

Here’s the official trailer for World War Z.

The international trailer for Hitchcock.

Trailers From Hell: John Landis on Panic In The Streets.

Secrets Behind The X-Men: Cosmic comedy with Excalibur, but the Phoenix mini-series didn't make it to print, Colossus didn't make the team, and Nightcrawler's Captains Courageous team wasn't assembled.

Best Art Ever (This Week): November 9th.

Tokypop: Cosplay Friday #4. My favorite is the person dressed as Adam West Batman, complete with bomb.

I Love Ya But You’re Strange—Aunt May…Herald of Galactus?!

Every fan needs a copy of Making Ghostbusters.

10 Classic Logos Re-Imagined For The Zombie Apocalypse.

The zombie version of the Mile High Comics Woodchuck logo.

25 Things We Learned From The Rocky Horror Picture Show Commentary.

Comic Book Legends Revealed #392.

Beauty and the Beast gets full season.

Syfy Renews Haven For Season 4.

Spielberg, Tarantino And Zack Snyder All Say No To Star Wars.

Horror Etc Podcast, Episode 273: Twin Peaks.

Movie Issues Podcast: Sixteen Candles (1984)

Retroist Podcast—Episode 123: Too Close For Comfort.

On the Yuletide front, I’ve been writing chunks of the fanfic I was assigned. I’m going to get started on piecing things together, starting this weekend. From there, I’ll see if it’s long enough and work on that. The series I’m writing for is completely and utterly insane, which helps.
calliopes_pen: (shawnkyr Doc and Clara)
2012-11-08 03:37 pm

Fannish Items of Interest

Most SOPA/PIPA Supporters Survive The Election.

Rapidshare Limits Public Download Traffic To Drive Away Pirates.

Vertigo Cancel Hellblazer; DC Announce Constantine.

Arrow Exclusive: Farscape And Stargate SG-1’s Ben Browder To Play DC Comics Character Ted Gaynor.

Exploring The Seeds Sewn In DC’s New 52 #0’s.

Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel Goes 3D.

Bizarro Back Issues: The Dubious Election of President Batman (2009).

What Has DC Comics Done To Alfred?

Sesame Street to air hurricane special.

Hasbro Denies Recent Disney Acquisition Rumors.

The Hobbit TV Spot #4—the Extended Version.

Four New Banners For The Hobbit: An Expected Journey Released.

Burn Notice renewed for shorter seventh season.

Boy Meets World sequel: Plot Details.

Ray Harryhausen: Special Effects Titan Trailer.

Harvey Kurtzman Estate and Al Feldstein File to Regain Classic EC Copyrights.

Dark Shadows Alumni Return In Mabuse Remake. The original series actors that are involved include: Jerry Lacy, Kathryn Leigh Scott, and Lara Parker.

Marty McFly Is Bewildered By What He Sees In 2015.

A Sci-Fi Television Viewer’s Guide To Science Fiction Books.

From Cracked: 6 Iconic Movie Scenes That Happened By Accident.

Bram Stoker books celebrated by Google Doodle.

Bram Stoker At 165.

Blu-Ray Deal: The Mel Brooks Collection.

The Great Stephen King Reread: Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining.

The Line It Is Drawn #114—Disney Welcomes Star Wars To The Family.

How It Should Have Ended: Casino Royale.

Edward Scissorhands Plush.

Random Roles: Mark Hamill revisits Sushi Girl, Batman, and The Simpsons.

A mysterious, giant hand rises from the Chilean desert.

GBFans 2012 Halloween Contest Voting Now.

11 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About James Bond.

Jurassic Park 3D—Official Trailer.

Hitchcock: Behind The Scenes Featurette.

Junk Food Dinner Podcast, Episode #134: The Core (2003), Straw Dogs (2011), and Grizzly II: The Predator: The Concert (1983).

Mission Log Podcast #14: Episode 14—Balance of Terror.
calliopes_pen: (iconsbycurtana librarians rule the world)
2012-11-01 12:41 pm

Fannish Items of Interest

Fandom Aid seeks to help raise money for survivors of Hurricane Sandy with an auction.

Both Paid and Permanent Accounts will be cancelled by Livejournal. If the latter has already been purchased, they will not be lost.

Holiday Wishes 2012 is coming.

Top 10 Yuletide fanfic requests.

The Bat Family Christmas Exchange.

31 Days of Horror: Halloween / Halloween II / Halloween III: Season of the Witch.

The Line It Is Drawn #113—Happy Halloween

2012 Top 100 Comic Book Runs #2-1.

There was a Twitter account dedicated to tracking the progress of Michael Meyers as he slaughtered his way through Haddonfield, Illinois last night. And one for Dr. Sam Loomis as he tracks him. They only dealt with the first two movies.

Dracula vs. Frankenstein vs. reality: 13 horror posters scarier than their movies.

Is Horror Too Scary For Broadcast TV?

13 Ghosts of Halloween: Day 13.

The haunted building from Ghostbusters is for sale, for all your Gozer-worshipping needs. The asking price is…$35 million.

The Desk Where Bram Stoker Created Dracula Is Hitting The Auction Block.

X-Men animation cells to be auctioned online December 1st.

The Great Stephen King Reread: The Shining.

Your First Good Look At The Necronomicon From The Evil Dead Remake.

Silvestri and Hawkins On Two Decades of Top Cow, Part 2.

P:R Approved: Luc Latulippe’s Firestar.

Kia Motors unveils four Justice League inspired cars.

Andrew Dunbar will play Firefly on Arrow.

Exhibit looks at comic book censorship.

24 Things We Learned From The Frankenstein Commentary.

Evil Dead Cabin Hat.

Francis Lawrence To Direct The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Parts 1 and 2.

George Lucas Will Donate Most of the 4.05 Billion From Star Wars Deal.

MPAA Officially Passes PG-13 Rating For Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part Two.

The Ed Brubaker Captain America Exit Interview.

Horror Etc Podcast, Episode 272: The 5th Anniversary.

The JV Club #35: Amy Acker.

Weinberg’s House of Horrors, Episode 10: Love For Lovecraft.

We didn’t get a single trick-or-treater last night, pretty much as I expected. They were doing half a dozen Trunk-or-Treats at various churches, had a roped off section downtown for safe trick-or-treating, and a fall festival at another church. Also, a traffic jam near my area, thanks to K-Mart (a few blocks from me) hosting a Safe Halloween, and passing out candy there.
calliopes_pen: (rosiemoon rude not ginger 10)
2012-09-07 12:55 pm

Fannish Items of Interest

Jake Eberts has passed away, at the age of 71, following a brief illness. May he rest in peace.

Anti-Piracy Outfits Think Megaupload, Demonoid, and BTjunkie Are Still Alive.

Botnet master gets 30-month prison term for renting out infected PCs.

Mother Puss Bucket T-Shirt. It’s Mr. Stay Puft’s angry head being roasted over a fire.

Ghostbusters mod for Doom 2: Gozer battle.

Cocktails With Stan Lee: Seth Green.

Weird Secrets Of The Avengers That You’d Never Have Guessed.

Robot Chicken DC Comics Special Review. You can watch a recently released clip here.

Man of Steel: 10 Mistakes From Superman Returns The Reboot Must Avoid.

The AV Club Q&A: Confused By Our Commitment.

Syfy Acquires British Series Sinbad, Will Premiere April 2013.

Top 50 alternate movie endings. The list includes X-Men: The Last Stand, Army of Darkness, Dawn of the Dead, The Birds, Brazil, Clue, and many others.

The Eleventh Doctor’s 11 Best (and 7 Worst) Episodes.

Another clip from Doctor Who: Dinosaurs On A Spaceship.

Star Trek TNG: Season Two Blu-Ray Out On December 4th.

On Star Trek’s 46th Anniversary, Google Celebrates With Interactive Doodle.

New Wonder Woman Series In Development For The CW.

Wonder Woman On TV: A Brief History.

Writer Victor Gischler Gets To Know The Shadow.

Game of Thrones Cake.

New VOD Title From Rifftrax: The Bermuda Triangle.

Trailers From Hell: David DeCoteau on Tourist Trap.

Exploring Lost Worlds: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Professor Challenger.

Jim Starlin talks Thanos, Guardians of the Galaxy, and more.

The 15 Greatest Classic Nickelodeon Shows. I would add Are You Afraid Of The Dark, and Salute Your Shorts.

1950s Rockabilly Batman came to life at Dragon Con.

Remember when Robin fought Batman while he was taking a shower?

G4, 2002-2013.

Donkey Jones T-Shirt.

Unattended Children Will Be Given To The Goblin King.

Best Art Ever (This Week)—September 7th.

Why is William Shatner making a documentary about Xena?

Comic Book Legends Revealed #383.

Nosferatu At 90: Florence Stoker, Vampire Hunter.

Final Breakdown Of Special Features For They Live Special Edition.

Mission Log Podcast #5: Episode 5: The Naked Time.

Movie Issues Podcast: Mannequin (1987)
calliopes_pen: (rosiemoon hello in there DoctorDonna)
2012-04-20 11:19 am

Fannish Items of Interest

Here’s a round-up of Jonathan Frid focused items: Fangoria has a lovely write-up of his life. Big Finish offers their condolences. Johnny Depp says he was “elegant and magical.” A beautiful, classy open letter of love from David Selby. Lara Parker shares her memories of the man in her blog. Found this out via this ShadowGram post: Donations may be made in Jonathan Frid’s memory to “Hillfield-Strathall College, the school where he got his first taste of acting.”

And a couple more clips: Quentin helps Barnabas escape from Edward. Barnabas, back when he was trying to drive Julia insane (ignore the annotations, funny though they are).

FBI seizes server providing anonymous remailer service.

Dimestore Dames spotlights Jane Foster.

Bryan Fuller Says Hannibal Is Planned For Seven Seasons.

The Weekly Geek: Xena Was Real. Or, at least, female gladiators were.

An upcoming Batgirl bust.

The teaser for Beware The Batman.

The Batman Musical Is Here.

Centaur Anatomy Revealed: Two Hearts, Six Limbs, One Brain.

Dawson And Rourke In For Sin City 2.

How The Hunger Games Should Have Ended.

Theatre Converted To A Bookstore. Impressive.

Baltimore will host the next North American Discworld Convention in 2013.

Doctor Who: a celebration of the Cybermen.

Bram Stoker Centenary: Grimwood On Dracula.

Avengers Additional Shooting: Not A New Scene, But “One Little Change.”

Lionsgate Offers Catching Fire Directing Duties To Francis Lawrence.

Read an excerpt from Anno Dracula: The Bloody Red Baron, by Kim Newman.

Worst Heroic Lead Characters.

Japanese Brave Poster Contains New Story Elements.

53 Reasons Why We Need A New Star Trek TV Series.

Luca Pizzai’s redesign of Banshee, Siryn, and Black Tom.

5 Reasons MST3K’s Joel Is Better Than Mike…and 5 Reasons Mike Is Better Than Joel.

This photo of a spider eating a 1.5 foot long snake will burn into your brain. Those with arachnophobia, steer clear.

Frank Miller’s 1994 speech on Jack Kirby and creators’ rights.

Incept yourself with lucid dreaming goggles.

Should you check your e-mail?

Calvin McFly and Doc Hobbes.

Marvel’s Avengers Come To Life At New Madame Tussauds New York Exhibit.

14 Freaky Sci-Fi And Fantasy Prisons.

Community: Subverting The Genre.

Lego Catwoman And Lego Wonder Woman.

Spock Through Time.

Lost In Space Robot Cake.