Ray Harryhausen passed away last week. This has been noted by people more qualified than I to discuss the master of stop-motion magic—Rick Baker, Adam Savage, Todd Masters, George Lucas, Peter Jackson, and more. The superhuman talent and perseverance evident in a Harryhausen effects sequence can easily be seen in countless visual effects artists since he first brought his creations to frame-by-frame life on the big screen. That makes sense. So how can I really say anything of worth when I say that I was also profoundly influenced by the artistry of Ray Harryhausen? With modesty, and a story about Clash of the Titans. Continue reading…
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Recent Features
Ray Harryhausen and Me: A Life of High Adventure and Escapism
Things That Change You Forever
I have a ghost story of my own. At least, I have a ghost-cat story.
My final year as an undergraduate was spent in relative splendor. My friends and I lucked into tenancy in the house of a professor on sabbatical. Twelve foot ceilings! Built in bookshelves! Three cats! Real, grown-up furniture! Wait… let’s get back to the cats. The professorial family had three cats and a dog, though the dog was sent to a friend with a farm (later, they told us later that we clinched the lease when they told us that cat care was part of the deal and our response was, “Aw, we don’t get the dog?”).
So. Three housemates, three cats. One morning around the (solid oak!) table, we were chatting about the cats’ sleeping habits. Two of the cats routinely slept in my room, the third with one of the others. Feeling a little left out, the third roommate said, “That’s okay, because Ghost Cat slept on my bed last night.” Continue reading…
Secret Agent, Detective, Genius, Jerk: Modernizing Sherlock Holmes
A man with dark wavy hair wakes up in an iron-framed bed in the middle of a windowless room. He leaps out from under the white sheets and stares intently at a corner of the white ceiling. Suddenly, gracefully, he spins to defeat an invisible opponent in four swift motions, finally falling to his knees in front of an empty chair, hands outstretched.
There’s something about the way Benedict Cumberbatch plays the lead role in the BBC series Sherlock that seems like it could be Holmes’ fantasy version of how a brilliant detective behaves. Continue reading…
My New Weapon of Choice
In April, the Guttersnipes like to mix it up a little. This month, Comics Editor Carol Borden writes about romance.
“You hit him with a frying pan,” he said to her. “How come you didn’t grab a knife?”
“The frying pan was closer.” Her eyes slid away. “It’s not like I had time to pick a weapon. It’s not like the frying pan is my weapon of choice.” –Agnes And The Hitman (27)
Growing up in a town where Elvis was sighted post mortem, I despised and mocked The King. Now, I have held wakes in his honor. I used to only like punk. Then I used to say I liked everything but country. Now I don’t even bother arguing that I’m listening to “Americana,” not country. It is a truth universally acknowledged that something I once despised I will come to appreciate and, often, love. So when both Chris and alex recommended Jennifer Crusie, the author of many romance novels, and in particular her collaboration with Bob Mayer, Agnes And The Hitman, I knew I needed to read it. Continue reading…
Black Women in Heavy Metal
The Black Girl Nerds Podcast discusses Black girls and women in the Heavy Metal industry with author and journalist Laina Dawes and Ursula “She-Wolf” Parson from Hear Evil News.
“Space Oddity”
Commander Chris Hadfield performs David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” in space.
RIP, Deanna Durbin
Actress and singer Deanna Durbin has died. The Los Angeles Times and The Guardian have obituaries. Audie Cornish and Melissa Block remember Durbin on NPR. Here Deanna Durbin sings, “Good-Bye” in Because Of Him (1946)
New Manborg Trailer!
New HD trailer for the most excellent, Manborg!
Canadian Book Publishing Twitter Rap Battle
Gutter friend and Coach House Press publicist Evan Munday is in ongoing Canadian book publishing Twitter rap battle with Found Press/Cormorant Books’ Bryan Jay Ibeas.
Join The Literary Resistance!
The Gutter’s own Founding Editor, Jim Munroe talks about creating an alternate reality game based on Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 for the Toronto Public Library.
The Kraken Wakes
In 1965 CBC Radio adapted John Wyndham’s alien invasion story,”The Kraken Wakes.” Keep watching the skies as you listen here.
Interview with Nalo Hopkinson
TVOntario interviews writer Nalo Hopkinson about utopian literature, the ancestral experience of slavery, “noticing race” and the ideals of Toronto’s Caribana festival.
Chris Benoit vs. Triple H
Paul Casey illuminates “Wrestling’s Dark Heart” in discussing responses to the lives and careers of wrestlers Chris Benoit and Triple H. “Chris Benoit, unlike Triple H, is not just a sign of ‘business as usual.’ He is the sign of not only a callous indifference to the health of these athletes by the audience who [...]
Interview with Jim Munroe
Jim Munroe appears on Radio Free Skaro to talk about his feature film, Ghosts With Shit Jobs.
Most Popular at The Gutter 2012
Behold, a listing of the most popular pieces at The Cultural Gutter in 2012!
Top Science Fiction and Fantasy of 2012
The Gutter’s own Chris Szego is quoted in Quill & Quire‘s list of Canadian booksellers’ top science fiction and fantasy for 2012! Chris manages Bakka Phoenix, Canada’s oldest science fiction and fantasy bookstore.
50 Wonderful Things in 2012
Linda Holmes shares 50 wonderful things at NPR’s Monkey See blog.
What’s New At No Media Kings?
CG Co-Founding Editor Jim Munroe and Matt Hamill have a new text game, Guilded Youth. Meanwhile, Jim’s latest movie, Ghosts With Shit Jobs, is now available on Xbox.
Making The Blues Brothers.
At Vanity Fair, Ned Zeman explores the history of The Blues Brothers. “It is October 1979, and The Numbers are not to [Lew] Wasserman’s satisfaction. The culprit is Universal’s big-ticket production The Blues Brothers, a movie that pretty much defies logic and description. Some call it a musical; others, a comedy; others, a buddy movie; [...]
Nice Things Said About Gutter-A-Go-Go!
Sharnacious, EJPCreations and ADignorantium have some nice things to say about The Gutter and our indiegogo campaign, Gutter-A-Go-Go!
Crimewave!
It seems like when people think of comics, they think of superheroes, but there was a long time when crime and comics were synonymous. And now it seems like some of the best comics around are crime books. There’s a new golden age, a new crimewave in comics. I’ve been meaning to write about it, [...]
Apple, Nudity and e-Books
At The Globe and Mail, Michael Posner writes on Apple’s corporate censorship of Peter Ovig Knudsen’s books, Hippie 1 and 2. “The Hippie book controversy follows a series of similar attempts by Apple to censor–or deny market access–to artistic material it deems offensive.”
Part Human, All Sasquatch
MSN/MSNBC is reporting on bigfoot mitochondrial DNA and here at The Gutter, we really don’t care that there is no evidence shared yet: “For her study, Ketchum obtained three “whole nuclear genomes from purported Sasquatchsamples. The genome sequencing shows that Sasquatch mtDNA is identical to modern Homo sapiens, but Sasquatch nuDNA is a novel, unknown [...]
“150 Pages of Craziness”
A copy of Invectives Against The Sect of Waldensians was discovered in an Alberta library. “The manuscript is thought to have been written around 1465 by a monk in what is now France’s Burgundy region, possibly for England’s King Edward IV, said Gow. It is exceedingly rare—one of only four copies known to exist—and is [...]
keep looking »Of Note Elsewhere
“It’s easier to tell the same stories everyone else does. There’s no particular shame in it.
It’s just that it’s lazy, which is just about the worst possible thing a spec fic writer can be.
Oh, and it’s not true.”
Kameron Hurley writes about lazy writing, cannibal llamas, female soldiers, and women here. (Thanks, James!)
Patton Oswalt’s multi-franchise super-movie described in his Star Wars filibuster from Parks and Recreation, animated.
Corrigan Vaughan writes an open letter to “Fans of Geek Things“: “I appreciate that you think I have a nice rack and that some of you even find my friends and I to be pretty. That’s very kind. I’m not, however, super in love with the fact that having a rack at all seems to preclude me from being considered a ‘real’ fan.”
The Hollywood Reporter interviews director Takashi Miike about his new film, Shield of Straw: ” In Japan now, films are very safe. When I was young and went to old cinemas, they had a distinctive feel, an adult smell about them. As you got in your seat and the lights went down, there was a feeling of excitement: What if the film is scarier than I thought it’s going to be? You’re taken into that world. Nowadays, you can sit in the theater and know it’s going to be safe. That’s good for business, but not for filmmaking.”
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