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…
See All Categories
- Comics (120)
- First (7)
- Guest Star (45)
- Movies (34)
- Notes (2113)
- Romance (76)
- Science-Fiction (116)
- Screen (58)
- Videogames (71)
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…
“Cross-Cultural Representations of the Female Cyborg”
At Babbler Dabbler, Briana discusses female cyborgs in Ghost In The Shell and in Alien: Resurrection.
Wonder Woman and “Blood-Curdling Masculinity”
At The Atlantic, Noah Berlatsky writes about the new incarnation of Wonder Woman. “[M]aking Wonder Woman more violent doesn’t make her more mature or more real. It just makes her more conventional.” (via @BlackComix)
White Scripts and Black Supermen
The trailer for White Scripts And Black Supermen: Black Masculinities In Comic Books, a documentary directed by Jonathan Gayles. And there are some extended interviews at the documentary’s YouTube Channel.
“He wanted to reflect on his world of chivalry”
A complete, online documentary about legendary film maker, Chang Cheh. Thanks to the ladies of the Heroic Sisterhood for reminding us that Feb. 10 would’ve been his 90th birthday. “He liked all actors, but he liked the naught ones more, especially the ones who didn’t listen to him.”
The Suits of James Bond
A website dedicated to fab fashion and 007. (thanks, @World_Of_Hurt)
Loving the Alien: Superman and Masculinity
Since alex, Chris and I decided to write about masculinity this month, I’ve been thinking about Superman. Actually, I’ve been thinking and rethinking Superman almost as long as I’ve been writing for The Cultural Gutter. I began really thinking about him while watching Justice League and Justice League Unlimited. I’ve spent most of my life—and [...]
The Many Faces Of Man. Or Rather, Men.
Alex’s excellent article last week prompted Gutter Overlord Carol to suggest we each use this month to write about masculinity in our own particular capacity. Having been by odd coincidence right in the middle of reading The Male Brain by Louann Brizendine (a fascinating look at the physical and hormonal characteristics unique to, um, the [...]
Boy Band Madrigal
Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay performs–as a boy band–the madrigal, “Come again sweet love” written by John Dowland. (thanks, alex!)
How to be a Man in Four hours: The Perils of Instant Gratification
As a transguy, the question “What makes me a man?” has meant both pretty much the same things to me as to any other guy, and also something a bit different. I had to figure most of it out on my own, going through a second puberty of sorts at a point when all my [...]
The Bronies of Eire
Noting that, “After all, we Irish have always been a nation of horse fanciers,” Joe O’Shea writes of the Bronies of Ireland.
“Tarantino’s Candy (Slavery in the White Male Imagination)”
Tanya Steele watches Lincoln and Django Unchained back to back. “I needed to get a glimpse of what slavery was like in the imagination of white men.” (Thanks, Mike White!)
“Raymond Chandler’s Private Dick”
Ta-Nehisi Coates writes an interesting post about Philip Marlowe, masculinity, biology and misogyny at The Atlantic: “I’ve consumed art like this all my life–men claiming invulnerability, against all I know of maleness and human attraction. Misogyny is not merely a moral problem, but a problem of art. It takes half the world and caricatures it. [...]
Biceps and Glasses
Move over Ryan Gosling, Beth Loves Bollywood has a gallery of filmi actors wearing spectacles and flashing their biceps.
Difficulty Settings and Cheat Codes
John Scalzi and Dr. NerdLove use gaming to understand being a guy in the real world. In writing about “straight white male” as the lowest difficulty setting in life, Scalzi builds on a Luke McKinney article in Cracked. Dr. NerdLove is a little less explicitly game-centric in his “Virgins, Victims and Player Haters: Adventures in [...]
James Deen, A Star in Straight Porn That Women Like
Slate ponders a Good Living interview with James Deen, porn star, and “porn that women like–why does it make men so uncomfortable.”
“Sometimes It Doesn’t Get Better”
In discussing Astron-6′s horror movie, Father’s Day, Dave Pace notes that what seems to make viewers uncomfortable is not the violence but the nudity, the male nudity. “What I don’t understand is the uncomfortable shifting around and the outright revulsion you will hear for the scenes where you just see regular naked men. I also [...]
“Girls Will Be Boys”
There’s a fantastic gallery of actresses portraying male characters including four adaptations of Viktor and Victoria at Movie Morlocks. Kimberly Lindbergs writes a little on each performance and film, too.
“Men Behaving Sadly”
In a lovely meditation, William Goss sees continuity between The Grey and Oslo, August 31st: “I found myself reminded of the great beauty that movies can have, the universal truths that they could capture, the emotions that – if we’re lucky – they will convey and elicit.”
I Double Dog Dare You
Last month I wrote about Jackass as a cultural project, but what I initially intended to write about was how I feel just a little bit better about myself and the world after watching it. And no, it’s not because they’re all more of a jackass than I am.
Smart Bitches, Trashy Radio
Smart Bitches Candy Tan and Sarah Wendell talk man-titty vs. man-boobs, Romance masculinity and their favorite bad euphemisms, but don’t too much into the heroine’s “magic hoo-hoo” with Australian comedian and radio host, Alan Brough. Hilarity ensues! (We can’t recommend the Smart Bitches, Trashy Novels site enough, whether you read romance or not).
Of Note Elsewhere
At Sequart, Julian Darius makes the case that Star Trek: Into Darkness damages the Star Trek franchise and that “Starfleet must be destroyed.” (via Mike White)
“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 Book!
Obsessive?
Weekly Notifications
Search the Gutter
What We’re Talking About
1930s
1940s
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s
action
adaptation
animation
art
Canada
capitalism
China
comedy
comics
fandom
fantasy
feminism
film history
games
geekery
gender
history
horror
interviews
Japan
martial arts
monsters
movies
music
RIP
romance
science fiction
space
superheroes
the ladies
trailers
tv
UK
USA
video
writing