According to this item, Maila Nurmi, known for her portrayal of Vampira on the big screen and small, is no more.
Before she can appear again she must await the implementation of Plan 9:
Good luck, with that, Vampira! You shall be missed.
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Who will be the next American Hero? (spread the word)
Scott Phillips has decided to release his most recent film, Gimme Skelter, on DVD through Kurly Tlapoyawa’s Burning Paradise Entertainment label.
Check it out. It’s a good movie - I reviewed it here myself. As I mentioned, it’s not to everybody’s taste. But if you like indie horror - it transcends the genre.
Mainly, bravo to Scott and Kurly. It’s a courageous step. It’s also a necessary one, but for Scott as a creator and for the entertainment field in general. Including, need I add, prose fiction?
Centralized distribution of entertainment is broken. It no longer serves either creators or their audiences. It will not be fixed.
This applies to all major media.
Authors, artists, musicians, filmmakers, whatever - we’re going to have to take charge of distributing and marketing our own works to a greater and greater degree. This can and will happen individually as well as cooperatively. There’s no one model; one size does not fit all.
This change will also require our readers, listeners, viewers, what have you, to embrace - by which I mean, buy - independently offered works.
So please - if you’re interested in cleverly written and splendidly produced horror films, give this one a look.
Hey! It’s got nekkidness in it. What more do you need?
By sheerest happenstance I just found out the sort of tattoo Annja sports on the cover of Secret of the Slaves
How did we get by before the advent of Urban Dictionary?
Boy howdy, they sure do hit on emo pretty hard.
On another random tangent, it turns out Bruce Hornsby’s sure a lot more interesting and listenable doing fast jazz than he was as a sententious, received-wisdom-affirming message-rocker in the 1980’s. (And droning. Did I mention droning?) At least to judge by the cut “Celia,” from his 2007 CD Camp Meeting
And yes, I did; I did go there. I pimped the CD through my Amazon Associates link, complete with the cute hover-over feature so you can see a bitty product preview. Same as I did with the Rogue Angel book. Think of it as my thoughtfully offering my readers a chance to express approval of me or this blog or just utterly unearned (and unlikely) beneficent impulses by buying through this site so’s I get a cut. You know you wanna!
Shame? I am a writer. I cannot afford ze shame!
Yep, the senses-shattering next volume of the illustrious Wild Cards saga has wrapped and is about to be delivered to Tor. It’s called Busted Flush. And unlike the soon-to-be-released Inside Straight
Busted Flush is by way of being another mosaic novel - all the stories are intertwined. It’s a boatload of work for George, the editor, and Melinda, the co-editor (who also wrote the interstitial material tying it all together.) But it can produce a very nice effect.
My contribution marks the return of an old friend. But things are maybe not as they appear…
Reviews are coming in for the next Wild Cards volume, Inside Straight.
Meanwhile Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist out of Québec offers you a chance to win one of two autographed advance reading copies of Inside Straight
That’s right. I’m not in it. I chose to sit this one out. Don’t let that dissuade you from checking it out. You’ll enjoy Busted Flush a whole lot better if you read this first!
Anyway, congrats to the kids in the first book, and hooray for the triumphant return of Wild Cards! Look for it January 22, 2008.
Happy Dia de los Muertos, everybody! Hope you enjoyed Halloween. I did. Went and watched movies with friends.
I’m sitting here wasting time online to start the day - need to cut back on that - and have the German Bomber Channel, in this case The History Channel, on as sort of electronic wallpaper. And on comes a commercial for “the new novel by George RR Martin - the American Tolkien - A Feast for Crows, now in paperback!”
How cool is that?
Of course it also speaks to the malaise afflicting Big House publishing: that authors whom everybody knows and whose books are most eagerly awaited get massive promotion spending, whereas unknowns get … dregs. Meaning these expert marketing departments are really good (actually, their track record calls even this into question) in selling something everybody already wants. As to developing new properties - new producers - well …
But that’s a rant for another time. It’s more fun right now to look at all the cool things going on for science fiction writers in New Mexico - SF Capital of the Known Universe! We got Steve Gould’s Jumper coming out in February, starring Samuel by God Jackson (and Hayden Christensen, so this could be a wash, granted.) At Pat Rogers’s and Scott Denning’s Halloween party Saturday night - the social event of the Millennium to date! - Steve “S. M.” Stirling told me he’d just got a big advance for his new Dies the Fire
Closer to home the new Wild Cards volume, Inside Straight
And the above are just things from my friends. Apologies to the NM SF authors I may have slighted through ignorance.
So some big things are moving out here in the high desert. Given all that and Scott Phillips’s recent triumph - alluded to in the previous post - I need to get whippin’ to do my part to add to the tectonics here quite soon …
Important Safety Tip: as has become customary here on Sense of Adventure, if you hover over(most) of the above links you should see a product mini-description from Amazon. If you feel moved to buy any of the books or movies so listed, and do so clicking through these links, you’ll be supporting me, this site, and of course, Emma Dog. (Had to get her in here somehow.)
According to his blog, my pal Scott Phillips’ latest indie classic Gimme Skelter just won Best of the Fest Feature Film at the Halloween Horror Picture Show Film Fest in Tampa, Florida.
It’s high time his uniquely twisted genius started to gain widespread recognition. Financial success in his case is inevitable. It should happen sooner rather than later. He’s put in his time.
Just watched Idiocracy on cable. I loved Mike Judge’s Office Space. This one, also by Beavis and Butt-Head creator Judge (Albuquerque’s own!), offered some laugh-out-loud moments … such as the sign for “St. God’s Hospital,” with the last few letters crunched down the side where they run into an angle in the building.
But on the whole it struck me as a movie that makes fun of stupid people without itself being particularly smart.
I found it deeply okay. It’s worth a watch.
For a better experience, watch Office Space again. Then go read Cyril Kornbluth’s The Marching Morons.
Just got back from a premiere-weekend showing of Gimme Skelter. Enjoyed it greatly. Scott was kind enough to get me in free, hoping, he said, to hear my laugh in “all the right places.” I trust he did.
It’s a very good low-budget indy film with Scooter’s distinctive (demented) perspective. Billy Garberina did a great job as the not-really-effectual thrill-kill cult leader. Sarah Turner was surprisingly effective as Pajamas, one of his followers, managing to be sexy and scary by turns. In fact most of the cast turned in pretty good performances. Scott even got a good if minor turn from wizard Albuquerque artist Harry O. Morris. (It’s not that I didn’t think Harry could act, it’s that I never imagined he might want to, as shy and reclusive as he is.)
I think Scooter’s due to break out here pretty soon. His wild creativity (and that of the people he manages to gather around him) definitely transcends meager budgets.
The movie’s definitely not for all tastes. There’s gore, general freakiness, and yes, abundant Production Value. But if that doesn’t bother you, definitely check it out.
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Coming home I barely drove two blocks before I realized I had a flat. Pulled into a side-street and refilled it enough to limp home. Rear driver’s-side tire - again. The one I had fixed right before I left for STL.
I seem to be having really bad luck with flat tires. I wonder if there’s something more to it?
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But I won’t let it spoil an excellent day.
That was fun!
Just got back from Patricia Rogers’ and Scott Denning’s house in a beautiful part of the Río Grande valley north of Bernalillo. It’s a wonderful setting: an old rambling adobe house, an enclosed patio out back shaded by an ancient cottonwood tree, open green fields all around. I was lucky enough to get to attend the cast party there for Gimme Skelter, the latest film written and directed by my long-time pal Scott Phillips. While Pat and Scott D. are truly lovely people and the God and Goddess of Hosting, this party was actually hosted by Scott’s partner Jen (who for some inexplicable reason is credited as Jen the Ruiner in the film.)
Aside from the fact I’m friends with Pat and Scott and sundry cast and crew members, I was also invited ’cause my birthday was a week ago Friday. Lucked out there, huh?
Right off the bat I met Gunnar Hansen, a big amiable white-bearded bear guy. It didn’t strike me until shortly thereafter that I’d just shaken hands with Leatherface himself. I’ll admit I’ve never been a colossal fan of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but as I told Mr. Hansen as he was leaving, it’s always a privilege to meet a cultural icon. I also got to meet various other cast and crew folk - altogether a most excellent bunch.
