the words and worlds of John Robinson
We are chin deep into fall with winter knocking at the door. The days have shortened, the nights have lengthened, and cold winds are starting to blow. The proper cure for a season of discontent is to grab a good book, an epic story, and relax in the warm comfort of your home. Pretty much …
Ah, yes, finally...it is the first day of fall. As I write this it is ninety-four days until Christmas, sixty-five days until Thanksgiving, but, most importantly, it is only thirty-nine days until Halloween. It's been some kind of year, hasn't it? And we're in the home stretch to the new one. When I was a …
One of my favorite lines in The Blues Brothers is when Elwood asks the lady at the bar what kind of music they usually have at Bob's Country Bunker. She replies, cheerily, "We got both kinds, country and western." When I was a kid, there were only two kinds of music echoing from our hillside: country …
Continue reading "Searching For Robert Johnson by Peter Guralnick"
I'm a He-Man fan from way back. I was five years old when I was first gifted with the action figures. I loved them. I collected all the figures and playsets, and I watched the animated series every day after school. I was a fanatic. Before I ever viewed the cartoon show, my introduction to …
I like special edition magazines. Collector's editions, commemorative issues, whatever label you want to slap on them, I like them. At last count (which was just now), I currently have forty-six of these specialty magazines. That number is certainly no world record and I'm definitely not vying for one. Is forty-six on the high side? …
I love a good mummy story. Sadly, I've not read many because I really don't know of many. I once had a book of mummy stories that was so terrible (not well written at all) I couldn't get through the first one. Someone suggested Bram Stoker's The Jewell of the Seven Stars, but after my …
Continue reading "The Long Night of the Grave by Charles L. Grant"
"Just a visitor you see, So much wanting to be see...." -John Cale, Paris 1919 The first time I saw the Angel of Death, I mistook it for a friend. If you're wondering how many times I've seen it, or him, the answer is twice. The first encounter was at a distance. The second was …
The first literature I read seriously, and voluminously (aside from Little Golden Books), were comic books (nothing against the Poky Little Puppy or Scuffy the Tugboat). While my mother was busy with her stories (Dynasty, Falcon Crest, Knot's Landing), I had mine (Thor, Hawkman, Captain America). While it can be argued that comics are soap …
Sometimes, the best stories are the most difficult to explain. When you try to explain a plot line to others, they look at you funny because you’re telling them what, possibly, sounds like the stupidest, lamest thing ever to be thrust on them, the movie-going, book-reading public. For example, “Pig Blood Blues.” “Pig Blood Blues” can …
When I was a teenager my family were members of Rosewood Independent Baptist Church (the good ol’ RIB). It was a rural church with a sizable membership. Sizable for a country chapel, anyway. My uncle, Wayne, was the pastor of the church for many years. His wife, Edith, was a Sunday school teacher. She also …
Curio Macabre 