The Cultural Gutter

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"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." -- Oscar Wilde

Secret Agent, Detective, Genius, Jerk: Modernizing Sherlock Holmes

holmes cover 1

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 [...]

Interview with Michael Caine

The Daily Mail has a nice interview with Michael Caine and photographer David Bailey.

RIP, James Herbert

Author James Herbert has died. Herbert was the author of horror classics such as The Rats and The Fog. The BBC and The Guardian have obituaries. David Barnett has an overview of Herbert’s work.

Michael Caine: The Birth of the Cool

At Permission To Kill, David Bailey’s iconic photograph of Michael Caine and eight artistic interpretations.

Illustrating Mad Men

Mad Men‘s latest ad was created by veteran illustrator, Brian Sanders. The New York Times profiles Sanders and a little bit of illustration in the 1960s. “Illustrating for and watching the series was doubly meaningful for him, Mr. Sanders said, because Mad Men depicts a world he was once very much a part of. ‘The [...]

RIP, Gerry Anderson

Director, producer, writer, effects pioneer and puppeteer Gerry Anderson has died.  Anderson created the Supermarionation television series: Thunderbirds, Fireball XL5, and Stingray He produced the live-action series: UFO, The Protectors and Space: 1999.  The Guardian has an obituary and two letters remembering Gerry Andreson’s legacy. And here’s Craig Ferguson’s tribute to Fireball Xl5.

“The Pagan Pilgrim”

Ronnie Pontiac writes a fascinating essay on Thomas Morton, inciter of Puritans and founder of the Enlightenment Utopian experiment Ma-re Mount, “the American melting pot boiling hot” in the New World: “In May 1627 Tom decided to celebrate May Day with the locals. There would be food, drink, a maypole, music, dancing, and hopefully wenching; [...]

The Gothic Imagination

BBC Radio 4 presents dramatizations of Frankenstein and Dracula, as well as extras including discussions of the difficulty of performing Frankenstein’s Creature, Vitalism, and who Stoker might’ve based his Count on. Click through to The Gothic Imagination. (via @booksadventures)

China Mieville Interviewed By A 12-Year-Old Boy

China Miéville is interviewed by Skelli Scar, who offers Miéville an excellent suggestion: “Lastly I have a suggestion for you, why not write a short story about what the Olympics would be like in Un Lun Dun?” “This is a startling and excellent idea. Immediately various sporting events are suggesting themselves to me. I am [...]

Monster Island Resort Overruns the UK!

Monster Island Resort Podcast used all the powers of kaiju and Kilaakian technology combined to invide Edinburgh’s Fringe Fest and London’s Fright Fest. And there’s video documentation!  

Interview with the Quay Brothers

“Depth, light, sound, music: Stephen and Timothy Quay speak on the many dimensions of film,” both animated and live-action, at Keyframe.

Lo Fi Sci Fi Salon

Jim Munroe is programming a series of sci fi salons as a run-up to the 48 Film Challenge! The first is a chat with Louis Savy, Programmer for SCI-FI-LONDON, over Skype and a screening of shorts fro m SFL’s 48 Hour Film Challenge on Monday, August 31. See the entire schedule and more details here.  (Full [...]

A Martini for Santini: Commemorating Ernest Borgnine

Part of me dies under my overalls I close my eyes and a woman calls From a nightmare… Shave…shit…a shower and a shoeshine That’s it…sack time Everybody looks like Ernest Borgnine. He’s there, unexpectedly, in John Cooper Clarke’s punk poem ‘Thirty Six Hours“, blaring through the speakers as I write in the middle of the [...]

“Joseph Merrick and the History of the Human Sideshow”

In anticipation of The Elephant Man Joseph Merrick’s birthday next month, Abebooks’ Avid Reader has compiled a short history of John Merrick’s life and a gallery of books about Merrick, sideshow histories and biographies as well as a few promotional cards from the late 19th century.

Interview with Michael Caine

Empire Magazine interviews Michael Caine. about The Dark Knight films. Michael Caine prefers stunts and practical effects in his films.  “For me, it was incredible because the great thing about it was – and the secret of the success of this picture as opposed to those massive blockbusters out there – is the stunts and [...]

The Great Alan Moore Re-Read

Tim Callahan is re-reading and writing about all of Alan Moore’s major comics.  From Hell, Moore’s collaboration with Eddie Campbell, is the 26th installment.

Ghosts With Sh*t Jobs Kickstarter and Premiere!

Gutter founder Jim Munroe’s new film, Ghosts With Shit Jobs, will be premiering in Toronto, Berlin and at the Sci Fi London Festival in the UK. Chip in to the Kickstarter campaign to bring the film to more cities.

The 2011 Kitschies

Our good friends at Pornokitsch presented the 2011 Kitsches this weekend, click through for more and congratulations to the winners and to Pornokitsch for an amazing event!

Three Decades of David

The Vault of Horror has a very neat series of articles on the 30th anniversary of An American Werewolf in London, “Three Decades of David.”

RIP, Ken Russell

Filmmaker Ken Russell has died at the age of 84. The extremely prolific Russell’s films include:  Tommy; The Harry Palmer film, Billion Dollar Brain; Women in Love; The Music Lovers;  The Devils; Altered States; Crimes of Passion; and Lair of the White Worm.  The Guardian has an obituary and Mubi has a collection of articles [...]

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  • Of Note Elsewhere

    A novelist takes revenge on writers he doesn’t like via wikipedia. Slate has the story. “Qworty’s edits undermine our trust in this great project. Qworty’s edits prove that Wikipedia’s content can be shaped by people settling grudges and acting out of spite and envy. Qworty alone, by his own account, has made 13,000 edits to Wikipedia. And Qworty, as the record will show, is not to be trusted.”

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    Diane Dooley writes about Mars’ need for women and ways to subvert it.

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    “[T]he mainstreaming of Jane Eyre as a vanilla romance, or even as an exploration of a woman’s pure, uncompromising, and uncomplicated (and religious! and feminist!) integrity, says all kinds of things about our inability to speak honestly about violence and sex.” More on Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, consent, sex and submission, here. (via K.A. Laity)

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    Comic Book Attic talks about comics about comics, with plenty of pages from Joe Simon and Jack Kirby’s The Newsboy Legion for your enjoyment.

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    At Babbler Dabbler, Briana discusses female cyborgs in Ghost In The Shell and in Alien: Resurrection.

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    Commander Chris Hadfield performs David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” in space.

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