Books and Writing:
Lots of celebrations of Ray Bradbury’s birthday—he would have been 100 years August 22 of this year. File770 had several articles, including one about various events. (Note, the readathon continues through Labor Day.) The American Writers Museum in Chicago celebrated by displaying his typewriter and inaugurating a series of podcasts.
Nina Allan discusses “the canon” through the perspective of a British reader. It’s a dense, thoughtful article.
Over at Tor.com, James Nicholls recommends five Sf books that would make great musicals, in his opinion.
Nerds of a Feather offer up three capsule reviews.
McSweeney’s has a fun take on gothic horror, Miskatonic U, and Covid.
“But Mordew is a darkly brilliant novel, extraordinary, absorbing and dream-haunting.” I’m going to go out on a limb and say that the UK Guardian review really liked Mordew by Alex Pheby.
John Scalzi announced that the sequel to The Dispatcher, Murder by Other Means, will be available as an Audible Plus book effective September 10.
TV, Movies and Streaming:
Syfy Wire dissects the new trailer for the four-hour Justice League movie that will air on HBO Max. Director Zack Synder intends to break it into four one-hour episodes that can also be viewed in their entirety.
Season 5 of Lucifer on Netflix dropped this week. AV Club reviewed it. (Spoilers.)
I looked for this because I thought it was a how-stupid-are-you-opening-up-cinemas story; instead I found a cursed-movie story! The New Mutants, everyone.
This is fun! Phones in horror.
Internet:
The thing missing from the X-Files theme song was lyrics, and now that’s been remedied. Enjoy.
Women of color talk about playing superheroes who depict under-represented communities, and how important it is.
This site features a trompe lo’eil style muralist whose mural graces the wall of the San Jose Convention Center.
Atlas Obscura wants to hear from you. What is the greatest wonder in your state?
Videos:
Mischief the raven imitates human speech. The “Hi!” kind of creeped me out!
This passage from the McSweeney’s piece made me spit out my coffee:
“You note that all of your library’s holdings have been digitized for online reading, including certain “foul, repellent, and irrudinous tomes that bespeak eldritch accursed rites and which, once made public, may unleash nameless aeon-dead horrors.” The board is extremely concerned that “irrudinous” is not a word.”
Brilliant!
I love these columns, Marion.
I loved that “the board” had its priorities straight.