Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/gutadmin/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wp-twitter-timeline/wp-twitter-timeline.php on line 236

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

Recent Features

Ray Harryhausen and Me: A Life of High Adventure and Escapism

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…

Category: Guest Star

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…

Category: Romance

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…

Category: Screen

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…

Category: Comics, Romance

How Not To Write Smut

“I’d originally started writing a list of the mistakes made by poor smut writers, but I’ve decided that it would be more fun to write an absolute shit piece of erotica that illustrated, to an admittedly ridiculous degree, most of these errors.” Get your bad smut on here.

“Porn Fans Aren’t What They Used To Be”

“In an age when every conceivable permutation of pornography is immediately accessible for free online, the power dynamic between viewer and star has shifted. Most porn viewers are still quietly accessing the material from the privacy of their own homes, but because it’s so easy to get, the reverence has faded.” At the Adult Entertainment [...]

Genesis of the Cultural Gutter

Way back in 2003, Jim Munroe conceived of a SXSW panel, “Why I Dig Working In The Cultural Gutter” and the Cultural Gutter is one of the results of that discussion. Heath Row’s Media Diet has a transcript of that panel.

RIP, Sylvia Kristel

Actress Sylvia Kristel has died. While she worked with many directors on many films, Kristel is best known for the 1974 film, Emmanuelle, and its many sequels. The Guardian and The New York Times have obituaries. The Guardian also has a review of her memoir, Undressing Emmanuelle: “I was dressed, but people preferred me naked. [...]

FantAsia Film Festival 2012

The FantAsia site is up and running with many, many trailers to get you ready for the festival. (Or at least, what films to keep an eye out for).

Remembering the Origin of Fifty Shades of Grey

Galleycat documents 50 Shades of Grey‘s history as the Twilight fanfiction story, “Masters of the Universe,” and its from The Internet Archive’s search (aka, The Wayback Machine) as it transforms from fanfiction to a published sensation. (via The Measure)

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.”

Sexcula!

“Shot in Vancouver by one-time producer Clarence Neufeld and a cast of unknown exhibitionists, the adult monster spoof Sexcula is not only an almost lost piece of undeniably sleazy Canadiana, it’s also one of earliest monster movies made north of the border, a spoofy take-off on the Universal classic horror films.” More at Canuxploitation!

Interview with Joe Gage/Tim Kincaid

At Fangoria, Sean Abley interviews Joe Gage, director of the Gay porn “Working Man Trilogy” (L.A. Tool and Die; Kansas City Trucking Co.; and El Paso Wrecking Co.) as well as a bunch of low-budget horror movies under the name, “Tim Kincaid.” (Thanks, Matt!)

Full and Uncut Interview with Alan Moore

comicbookGRRRL‘s Laura Sneddon has posted her full and uncut interview with Alan Moore. An abridged version, “Superheroes are our visions of ourselves,” originally appeared in The Independent. Moore talks superheroes, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Lost Girls and attracting a female readership.

Jia Zhangke Speaks Out Against Cenorship in China

“The only reason that we cannot make genre movies is the barrier that censorship sets.” Jia Zhangke says more here. Meanwhile a leaked diplomatic document gives some insight as to whose taste is being served in recent Chinese historical epics. Xi Jinping admires American World War II dramas: “Some Chinese moviemakers neglect values they should promote…America [...]

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.

Cthulhurotica

Share your most tentacular and… tentual?… erotica with Cthulhurotica. I bet they’d even take your H.P. Lovecraft/August Derleth slash fiction…

FantAsia 2010

Dread Central has the schedule for FantAsia 2010 in Montreal. This year has a special focus on organized religion with a screening of Ken Russell’s The Devils and Serbian genre films with a screening of A Serbian Film. which people have found hard-going.

“I Have Brain Cancer”

You know what doesn’t go good in porn? Dialog like “I have brain cancer.” Cracked has more counterproductive porn dialog.

Batman XXX Trailers

Two Batman XXX trailers. Looks like the movie will have all the style and flair of the 1960s tv show, with nice production values, dutch angling, plus porn. Strangely, [SFW].

Jizztastic!

You read about it here (and here) and now you can have it all to yourself, former Gutter movie editor Robin Bougie’s XXX movie, The Cumming of Jizzus. Check out Robin’s blog for more info.

Top Score

Only you can decide if you want to look at the Accidental Video Game Porn Archive. (via Super Punch)

Saving the Fox

The CBC interviews former Gutter Movie Editor Robin Bougie about Vancouver’s famous and endangered grindhouse palace, The Fox. (He wrote an article about the Fox and the Venus–read it here).

“Porn’s reality is… uncanny”

Behold, Susannah Breslin’s The Unporny Valley! And Grand Theft Auto IV in “Return to the Unporny Valley.”

keep looking »

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)

~

This tumblr collects many bad jokes kids have invented.

~

“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 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.

~