The Cultural Gutter

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

Interview with Kim Gordon

“What the breach of generations shows is that there’s more than one way to be feminist.” Lizzie Goodman interviews musician and artist, Kim Gordon.

The Adventures of Dr. Beverly Crusher

Gates McFadden‘s Dr. Beverly Crusher action figure is having many non-Starfleet-related adventures and they’re being recorded on the Ensemble Studio Theatre’s Tumblr page. (via Tor.com)

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; [...]

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, [...]

RIP, Don Cornelius

Soul Train creator and host Don Cornelius has died. The LA Times has an obituary and YouTube has many, many Soul Train clips.

Thrilling Adventure and Supernatural Suspense Hour!

Thrilling Adventure and Supernatural Suspense Hour is the  podcast that brings you, the audience, the thrills and suspense you deserve! Live on stage or delivered wirelessly to you in the comfort and safety of your home. The Thrilling Adventure and Supernatural Suspense Hour is brought to you by Patriot Brand Cigarettes, “They’re good for your [...]

Disney Princesses in Period Dress

Illustrator Claire Hummel reinterprets Disney princess costumes to make them more historically accurate. (via The Bookshelves of Lesser Doom)

Confidential File: Horror Comic Books

Responsible newsmen, expert psychiatrists, concerned parents. Learn about the dangers of horror comic books with this complete edition of the 1950s television series, “Confidential File:  Horror Comic Books.” (via @PeterGutierrez)

RIP, Yvette Vickers

Actress and Playboy Playmate Yvette Vickers has died. She was discovered by director Billy Wilder and acted in Sunset Boulevard and such atomic era classics such as Attack of the 50-Foot Woman and Attack of the Giant Leeches.  Sadly, her body was discovered after a curious neighbor noticed her mail untouched.

The Chambers of Guillermo del Toro

The New Yorker tours Guillermo del Toro’s Los Angeles mansion and gets a look at Smaug and The Mountains of Madness. (via @Propnomicon)

Camera Obscura

Watch the first 3 episodes of Camera Obscura, a webseries about a woman who captures demons with her grandfather’s specially-altered camera. (Also, the grandfather? Played by Jack Klugman).

Photos from the Uglyverse

“Photos from the Uglyverse” capture Uglydolls as they go about their day to day business.

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Science Fiction Again

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It’s been years since I’ve read any straight-up science-fiction. You know, the classic stuff by authors like Arthur C. Clarke or Robert Heinlein or Isaac Asimov. But I got back into it recently through A.E. Van Vogt, having picked-up a used copy of Empire of the Atom.

Blade Runner: Designing the Future

In its awesomeness, The Curated Object also has pieces from “Blade Runner: Designing the Future,” including Syd Mead’s conceptual paintings and a promotional, luminescent umbrella.

A Century of Cinematic Horror

Decade by decade, the Movie Morlocks look at 100 years of cinematic horror, starting with the 1910 silent, Frankenstein.

Kathryn Bigelow Retrospective

Kathryn Bigelow won a best directing Oscar for The Hurt Locker. Time for a retrospective. Here’s the trailer for Near Dark and some clips. Point Break (i.e. Keeanu Reeves best movie). Jamie Lee Curtis in the cop thriller, Blue Steel. The premillennial tension of Strange Days. The Pirelli ad, Mission Zero. And her sub movie, [...]

VARIETY PAK

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It’s been just over a year since I became a partner in the Mayfair Theatre, Ottawa’s oldest operating cinema. We’ve shown a lot of films in that time (we average about 40 a month), and I’ve written the synopsis for almost every one.

The Casefile of Sherlock Holmes and Carl Kolchak, Reporter

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Though I prefer reading —and writing about —comics in collections, I do buy comics in single issues.  Sometimes I need to know what happens next or can’t wait for the collection anymore. Sometimes it’s idle curiosity or the lure of the pretty. But every once in a while, it’s the potential for all-out crazy. I [...]

RIP Zelda Rubinstein

Actress Zelda Rubinstein has died after being taken off life support in L.A. last month. Most Gutter readers probably know her best as the psychic in Poltergeist, but she also starred in movies like Anguish, Sixteen Candles and Southland Tales. She was a human rights activist and also a lab tech, so pour 1L for [...]

HELLO DOCTOR NAME CONTINUE YESTERDAY TOMORROW

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I had really hoped that my list of the top 10 films of the decade would be more surprising. Or perhaps I just assumed that I was less predictable. I thought about a lot of other films, some of which you’ll see in my runners-up rundown at the foot of this article, but these are [...]

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  • Of Note Elsewhere

    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.”

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    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.

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    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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    The Atlantic profiles Spectral Motion, creators of monsters, “effects, and other mechanical grotesqueries that have since become household nightmares, if not names.”

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    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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